Instant Thyroid Test

1. Wash your hands with soap and rinse with clean, warm water.

2. Bring the pouch to room temperature before opening it. Open the foil pouch and remove the cassette.

3. Carefully pull off and dispose of the cap of the lancet.

4. Use the provided alcohol pad to clean the fingertip of the middle or ring finger as the puncture site.

5. Press the lancet, on the side from where the cap was extracted; against the fingertip (side of ring finger is advised). The tip retracts automatically and safely after use.

6. Keeping the hand pointing downwards, massage toward the end of the finger that was pricked to obtain a blood drop.

7. Without squeezing the capillary dropper bulb, place it in contact with the blood. The blood migrates into the capillary dropper to the line indicated on the capillary dropper. You may need to massage your finger again to obtain more blood if the line is not reached. Avoid air bubbles.

8. Put the blood collected into the sample well of the cassette, by squeezing on the dropper bulb.

9. Wait for the blood to be totally dispensed in the well. Unscrew the cap of the buffer bottle and add 2 drops of buffer into the sample well of the cassette.

10. Wait for the coloured line(s) to appear. Read results at 10 minutes. Do not interpret the result after 20 minutes.

Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) is a hormone produced by the pituitary gland in the brain. It stimulated the thyroid gland to produce thyroxine (T4) and also tri-iodothyronine (T3) which stimulates metabolism in the body tissues. 

A TSH test is considered the best initial test for hypothyroidism however, there is no single TSH level that is definitely a cause for concern as each individual has a different standard.