High T3, High serum iron... what does this mean?

[youvegottobekidding]

Hello folks,

My little boy (age 6) has turned out to have high FT4 and high serum iron. The iron is very high for a child.
His TSH and T3 are normal and so is his ferritin (stored iron).

(His full blood count is all normal. He's also had tests on liver function (GOT, GPT and gamma GT) which came back normal too. And his cortisol is also normal!)

Can anyone explain how the iron situation could correlate with the thyroid situation?

He doesn't have any symptoms of hyperthyroid BTW, in fact I got him tested because I thought he might be Hypo! He is muscular for a kid his age, and slightly fat. His energy levels are lower than average.
He does have lyme disease which of course complicates things.

Anyway, if anyone can explain any of this to me, or suggest anything I should be asking his 2 doctors, I'd be very grateful!

[youvegottobekidding]

Thanks very much for your answers.

I'll double check the ranges. Good point.

I *think* (hope) we're safe from the thalassaemia issue.
My brother in law has thalassemia (one of the milder degrees, but he did get so ill as a child his parents were told he was going to die) and so my husband and I both got tested. We were both negative.
Though now that you have inspired me to read up on it, I realise that it isn't a straightforward positive/negative thing, so I think we had better revisit that whole issue.
Thanks for mentioning that, Red Star.

I shall ask the doc about the various types of hemochromatosis too.

[Red_Star]

The causes of high iron serum:

Hereditary hemochromatosis

Secondary hemochromatosis:
- ineffective erythropoiesis (thalassemias, sideroblastic)
- intra-vascular haemolysis
- liver disease
- excessive iron intake/iron poisoning

High iron affects the endocrine system and the thyroid gland is one of the endocrine glands. From the list, thalassemia (inherited blood disorder) is of interest since you live in Italy.  The gene for beta thalassemia is more frequent in people of Italian and Greek origin.

Thalassemia Major has been called Mediterranean anaemia. This put me off for a minute since you don't mention anaemia on the labs but then i found Thalassemia Minor can show mild or no iron deficiency anaemia.  Increased gastrointestinal iron absorption is seen in all grades of beta thalassemia. Beta Thalassemia Minor causing iron overload is high on my suspect list.

[goolarra]

Kids do run higher FT3 and FT4 levels than adults.  It might be worth a call to the lab to make sure ranges provided were age adjusted.

[youvegottobekidding]

Just realised my typo.

It is the T3 that is high, the T4 is within range.