Clinical chemistry reference intervals in clinically validated healthy individuals: A large single-center study.
BACKGROUND Accurate reference intervals (RIs) for laboratory test results are essential in clinical practice. To enhance clinical decision-making, refined RIs are needed. Therefore a single-center study was performed with extensively evaluated healthy participants, measuring a large set of biochemical markers. METHODS In this descriptive, quantitative, a priori direct sampling, single-center study, a total of 18,701 determinations were collected from 8380 healthy adults aged 18 years and older. Age- and sex-specific RIs were established for 36 biochemical assays. RESULTS Serum concentrations of several biochemical assays remained relatively constant across the adult age range and were similar between sexes (e.g., total calcium, chloride and sodium). Other biochemical assays (e.g., alanine-amino transferase, triglycerides) showed differences, indicating the influence of factors such as age and sex on the observed results. CONCLUSIONS For the first time in Europe, we established age- and sex-specific RIs for 36 biochemical assays using data from extensively clinically validated healthy participants.