Evaluation of value of indirect method in establishing reference intervals of CA72-4 / 中华检验医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To establish the reference interval for CA 72-4 in indirect method.Methods All results for CA72-4 that were stored in our laboratory information system of Zhongshan hospital between Jan.2010 and Dec.2012 were included in this study.Outliers were identified and omitted using Stem-and-Leaf&Box Plots in SPSS statistical software.The treated data was divided into several groups according to gender and age.Nonparametric rank sum test was used to observe the difference between male and female participants and Spearman correlation analysis was used to examine the correlation between CA 72-4 and age.Nonparametric reference intervals for CA 72-4 were estimated statistically in two gender sub-groups.Results After 139 cases excluded, there were 1 548 cases of male (Median 1.7, 0.4 to 18.9) and 773 cases of female ( Median 1.8, 0.2 to 18.9 ).There was a significant difference in serum CA 72-4 between male and female participants.No significant difference was found in serum CA 72-4 among age sub-groups.Indirect reference values for CA 72-4 of male and female were respectively 0 to 8.9 U/ml and 0 to 11.6 U/ml.Conclusion Indirect method to establish biological reference interval is a relatively simple and less expensive method under the high rapid development of the hospital information network .It can be used in the periodical review and establishing the reference intervals where the direct method can not be used.