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Establishing age/sex related serum creatinine reference intervals from hospital laboratory data based on different
Hans Pottel1, Nicolas Vrydags, Boris Mahieu
1Interdisciplinary Research Center, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Campus Kortrijk, Department of Clinical Chemistry, AZ Groeninge Hospital, Kortrijk, Belgium. hans.pottel@kuleuven-kortrijk.be
Summary
Serum creatinine (Scr) levels increase with age in Caucasians, with distinct patterns in males and females during adolescence and adulthood. These findings establish age- and sex-related reference ranges for serum creatinine.
Area of Science:
- Clinical Chemistry
- Biochemistry
- Population Health
Background:
- Retrospective analysis of a large hospital database.
- Focus on establishing age- and sex-related serum creatinine (Scr) values.
- Utilized an IDMS-traceable, enzymatic method in a Caucasian population.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine age- and sex-specific mean values and reference ranges for serum creatinine.
- To investigate the relationship between serum creatinine and age across the lifespan.
- To validate indirect methods for establishing creatinine reference intervals.
Main Methods:
- Filtered a large hospital database for unique entries to minimize bias.
- Employed three statistical methods: non-parametric, Bhattacharya procedure, and non-linear Gaussian distribution fitting.
- Analyzed serum creatinine-age dependency from birth to 100 years in both males and females.
Main Results:
- Serum creatinine increases with age, with similar patterns in boys and girls up to 14 years.
- A steeper increase in serum creatinine was observed in males compared to females between 14 and 20 years.
- Stable serum creatinine levels were noted between 20-70 years (mean 0.90 mg/dL for men, 0.70 mg/dL for women), with a slight increase after 70 years.
Conclusions:
- Indirect methods effectively confirm existing reference intervals from healthy volunteer studies.
- These indirect methods provide valuable data for age groups not covered by traditional studies.
- Indirect methods serve as a complementary tool to healthy-volunteer studies for serum creatinine assessment.
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