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

Background: Reference 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. Methods: 852 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. Results: Reference intervals were derived for all the analytes for males and females separately. Conclusion: Whilst 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.