Reference intervals of 6 biochemical parameters in blood of healthy adults at Police General Hospital

Abstract

Background: The reference intervals used in most laboratories were provided from the reagent manufacturer or from other references. According to good laboratory practice, however, every individual laboratory should present its own reference intervals, because of differences in analyzers, methods, and the quality of the analysis, including differences in population and geographical environment.

Objective: To establish reference intervals of 6 biochemical parameters as measured by an automatic analyzer Olympus AU640 at the biochemical laboratory, Police General Hospital, Bangkok.

Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study was done on 263 subjects composed of 126 males and 137 females. The subjects were selected from the healthy hospital officers subjected for an annual checkup in the year 2009 with no chronic diseases. After measurement for BUN, creatinine, uric acid, ALP, AST, and ALT, the reference intervals were statistically analyzed following the recommendations of The National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standard (NCCLS). To cover a 95% reference interval, using non-parametric statistics, the position at 2.5^th percentile and 97.5th percentile were assigned as the lower and upper limit, respectively.

Results: The reference intervals of BUN, creatinine, uric acid, ALP, AST and ALT were 7-19 mg/dL, 0.48-1.11 mg/dL, 3.2-7.6 mg/dL, 32-91 U/L, 16-37 U/L and 5-48 U/L, respectively.

Conclusion: The results from this study could be applied for the reference intervals for biochemical analysis using Olympus AU640 automatic analyzer at the Biochemical Division, Police

General Hospital, Bangkok.