RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: The elderly is known to have many different clinical laboratory data compared with the young adults. There have been rare studies comparing tumor markers and rheumatoid factors between young adults and the elderly in Korea. This study was conducted to evaluate the differences in tumor markers and rheumatoid factor between elderly and young adults. METHODS: We gathered 94 healthy elderly cases and 91 healthy young adults who have taken periodic health examination from November 1996 to February 1997 at one hospital. We compared the mean of rheumatoid factor and tumor markers between two groups and took multiple regression analysis. RESULTS: In the elderly, the mean of CEA and AFP are significantly higher than young adults. The number of abnormally elevated rheumatoid factor is significantly higher in elderly group, but in case of CEA the number of abnormal data is not significantly different. The CEA level is significantly high in smoker group than non smoker group. The factors that increase the CEA level are old age, smoking amount, albumin level. The factors that increase the AFP level are old age, hemoglobin level. The factor that increase the rheumatoid factor is old age only. CONCLUSION: When we interpretate the level of tumor markers and rheumatoid factor, we must consider the patient's age. Aging is a factor that is associated with CEA, AFP, rheumatoid factor.