Biological Variation in Biochemistry Analytes in Laboratory Guinea Pigs (Cavia porcellus)

Biological variation (BV) describes the physiological random fluctuation around a homeostatic set point, which is a characteristic of all blood measurands (analytes). That variation may impact the clinical relevance of the changes that are observed in the serial results for an individual. Biological variation is represented mathematically by the coefficient of variation (CV) and occurs within each individual (CV_I) and between individuals in a population (CV_G). Biological variation data can be used to assess whether population-based reference or subject-based reference intervals should be used for the interpretation of laboratory results through the calculation of the index of individuality (IoI). This study aimed to determine the biological variations, calculate the IoI and reference change values (RCV) of clinical chemistry analytes in an outbred strain colony of Hartley guinea pigs (GPs), and set the quality specifications for clinical chemistry analytes. Blood was collected from 16 healthy adult laboratory colony GPs via jugular venipuncture at weekly intervals over six weeks. All the samples were frozen and analyzed in a single run. Analytical, CV_I, and CV_G biological variations, together with the IoI and RCV, were calculated for each measurand. Based on the estimated BV, the calculated IoI was low for glucose, so individual reference intervals (RCV) should be used. The majority of the measurands should be interpreted using both population-based and subject-based reference intervals as the IoIs were intermediate.