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Published on: August 13, 2019
Age-specific reference ranges for serum testosterone and androstenedione concentrations in women measured by liquid
Robin Haring1, Anke Hannemann, Ulrich John
1Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, University of Greifswald, Ferdinand-Sauerbruch-Strasse, D-17475 Greifswald, Germany. robin.haring@uni-greifswald.de
Objective:
RIA-based sex hormone measurements offer only limited precision and specificity in the low concentration range of women. Therefore, we aimed to establish age-specific reference ranges for serum sex hormone concentrations in women using mass spectrometry and quantile regression.
Methods And Results:
Data from 985 women aged 20-80 yr, recruited for the prospective Study of Health in Pomerania, were included in the analyses. Quantile regressions models were performed to calculate the age-specific 2.5th and 97.5th percentiles for sex hormone concentrations in women. Serum total testosterone (TT) and androstenedione (AD) concentrations were measured by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Measured concentrations of SHBG and TT were used to calculate free testosterone (free T). TT, AD, and free T concentrations showed a distinct age-related decline across 10-yr age groups (one way ANOVA P < 0.001). Sex hormone reference ranges for TT, AD, and free T were determined across each single year of age and for 10-yr age groups. Reference ranges over the whole age range of 20-80 yr were 0.35-1.97 nmol/liter for TT, 0.89-4.56 nmol/liter for AD, and 0.0025-0.0253 nmol/liter for free T. Separate reference ranges were provided for pre- and postmenopausal women as well as after inclusion of women using oral contraceptives or hormone therapy (n = 1357).
Conclusion:
This is the first study to establish age-specific reference ranges for liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry-measured TT and AD and calculated free T concentrations based on quantile regression analyses, accurately accounting for the observed low concentration range and the strong age dependency of these sex hormones in women.
