Age‐ and sex‐specific reference intervals for hematologic analytes in Chinese children

INTRODUCTION: Reference intervals for pediatric laboratory tests need to be interpreted in the context of age- and sex-dependent dynamics. However, few reference intervals for healthy ethnic Han Chinese children have previously attempted to establish using large sample sizes. As such, there are no national hematological standards in China for pediatric reference intervals. METHODS: We used a direct method to enroll a total of 2164 healthy 1- to 7-year-old children from Henan province. Hematological reference intervals were established by analyzing venous blood sample data on 17 hematologic analytes. The reference values for different ages and sexes were estimated using both parametric methods (mean ± 2 SD) and nonparametric methods (2.5-97.5th percentiles). RESULTS: We provided reference intervals for 17 hematologic analytes including red blood count, hemoglobin concentration, hematocrit, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, and red cell distribution width, white blood count and differential count as well as platelet count and related parameters. CONCLUSION: We established age- and sex-specific reference intervals that can provide more evidence-based guidance for the diagnosis and treatment for pediatric diseases. Our findings provide the basis for the next step in establishing national blood testing standards.