New indices for thyroid functional status, hormone binding, and peripheral hormone metabolism. Principal component analysis of 24,000 clinical data.

Principal component analysis of three thyroid function tests, thyroxine (T4), 3,5,3'-triiodothyronine (T3), and T3 uptake (T3U), was done using 24,000 data obtained from patients with a wide range of pathophysiologic conditions related to the thyroid. The three component scores were obtained as follows: Z1 = 2.62 square root T4 + 0.63 square root T3 + 3.18 square root T3U - 32.43; Z2 = 0.91 square root T4 + 0.24 square root T3 - 4.68 square root T3U + 20.14; and Z3 = 3.94 square root T4 + 0.95 square root T3 + 0.18 square root T3U - 1.53 (T4 micrograms/dL, T3 ng/dL, T3U%). The first component (Z1) represents an apparent axis to the direction of thyroid functional status. It provides a new metabolic index putting conventional free T4 and free T3 indices together. The second component (Z2) was found to be a sensitive indicator of abnormal hormone binding. It showed a close correlation with serum concentration of thyroxine-binding globulin. The third component (Z3) represents the degree of T3 predominance over T4. Computation of these scores will facilitate the diagnosis of atypical cases in which hyper-or hypothyroidism is complicated by abnormal peripheral hormone binding and/or metabolism.