RESUMEN
The purpose of this study was to establish by way of trial reference interval of serum lipids (TC, HDL-C, TG and LDL-C) for old people aged 65 or over based on the document published by America's National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards. For this purpose, we used the results of the mass health screening tests run on a total of 14, 738 residents in Shimane Prefecture. We selected reference sample groups by excluding those examinees who had been undergoing medical treatment, those who had taken their meal less than 12 hours before, habitual drinkers and smokers, and those whose systolic blood pressure was more than 160mmHg, diastolic blood pressure upwards of 95mmHg, obesity level downwards -20% or upwards of +20%.<BR>T-C values peaked in the age group of 50s for men, while for women in the age group of 60s. Regarding HDL-C values, women were generally high compared withmen, but mean values for women in their 60s were significantly low (p<0.01) compared with those for women in their 50s. TG values were higher in men than in women. LDLC levels showed the same tendency as T-C levels.<BR>We compared the mean values of adults aged 64 or below and elders aged 65 or above. In the elders, the mean values for T-C, TG and LDL-C were significantly higher (p<0.01) than in the adults, and the mean HDL-C values were significantly lower (p<0.01) than in the adults.<BR>These results indicated that the reference interval of elders of T-C, HDL-C, TG and LDL-C could be from 147 to 289mg/dl, from 37 to 99mg/dl, from 40 to 209mg/dl and from 70 to 200mg/dl, respectively.