Blood counts in adult and elderly individuals: defining the norms over eight decades of life
Zierk J, Krebs A, Rauh M, Metzler M, Löscher A, Strasser E, Krause S (2020)
Publication Type: Journal article
Publication year: 2020
Journal
DOI: 10.1111/bjh.16430
Abstract
The blood count is one of the most common tests used for health assessment. In elderly individuals, selection of a ‘healthy’ reference population for laboratory assessment is difficult due to the high prevalence of chronic morbidities, leading to uncertainty regarding appropriate reference intervals. In particular, age-specific lower haemoglobin reference limits to define anaemia are controversial. Here, we applied a data mining approach to a large dataset of 3 029 904 clinical routine samples to establish blood count reference intervals. We excluded samples from units/specialists with a high proportion of abnormal blood counts, samples from patients with an unknown or decreased estimated glomerular filtration rate, and samples with abnormal test results in selected other analytes. After sample exclusion, 566 775–572 060 samples from different individuals aged 20–100 years were available for analysis. We then used an established statistical algorithm to determine the distribution of physiological test results and calculated age- and sex-specific reference intervals. Our results show substantial trends with age in haematology analytes' reference intervals. Most notably, haemoglobin and red cell counts decline in men with advanced age, accompanied by increases in red cell volume in both sexes. These findings were confirmed in an independent dataset, and suggest an at least partly physiologic cause.
Authors with CRIS profile
Jakob Zierk
Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine
Manfred Rauh
Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine
Markus Metzler
Professur für Kinder- und Jugendmedizin mit dem Schwerpunkt Pädiatrische Onkologie und Hämatologie
Astrid Löscher
Zentrallabor der Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
Erwin Strasser
Medizinische Fakultät
Stefan Krause
Department of Medicine 5 – Haematology and Oncology
Involved external institutions
Germany (DE)How to cite
APA:
Zierk, J., Krebs, A., Rauh, M., Metzler, M., Löscher, A., Strasser, E., & Krause, S. (2020). Blood counts in adult and elderly individuals: defining the norms over eight decades of life. British Journal of Haematology. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjh.16430
MLA:
Zierk, Jakob, et al. "Blood counts in adult and elderly individuals: defining the norms over eight decades of life." British Journal of Haematology (2020).
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