Establishment of pediatric reference intervals on a large cohort of healthy children

BackgroundReference intervals are essential in assessing the significance of laboratory results. There have been limited studies generating reference intervals from pediatric populations. We have studied a large cohort of healthy children on 3 separate occasions at 2 yearly intervals.Methods852 healthy 8 year old children were enrolled in a community-based multidisciplinary longitudinal study investigating how early physical activity contributes to health. The same children came back for reassessment at ages 10 and 12 years. Blood samples were analyzed for a total of 37 different chemistries, immunoassays or derived values.ResultsReference intervals were derived for all the analytes for males and females separately.ConclusionWhilst our results are largely in agreement with previously published work, we have shown that for a number of analytes, previously published work is distorted by subclinical disease.