Figure 7. Plots of peripheral thyroid hormone measurements (here T4) in various situations of thyroid dysfunction, protein binding abnormalities and drugs displacing the thyroid hormone from the binding proteins. The degree of distortion of the free T4 estimate depends on the assay methods (measurement platforms) as well as the degree of binding protein abnormalities. T3-test is able to distinguish central hypothyroidism from the effects of critical illness and displacement of the hormone by medicaments.