Investigation and analysis on the use of blood cell counting reference intervals in 2 869 hospitals in China / 中华检验医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the use of the reference intervals for blood cell counting and the reference of industry standard in China.Methods:Information from all laboratories was collected using online questionnaire in 18 reference intervals survey in blood cell counting in 2019. The information includes the source of the reference intervals, the verification of the reference intervals, and the upper and lower limits of the reference intervals, the method used, the instrument, the reagent and the calibrator. Microsoft Excel 2007 software was used to analyze the results of all laboratories. The median and 95% confidence interval were calculated. The distribution of the reference intervals for blood cell counting and their conformance to industry standards were analyzed.Results:2, 869 labs reported the data. The main sources were industry standards and National Guide to Clinical Laboratory Procedures. The proportion was 33.30%-35.02% and 28.55%-30.90% respectively. 49.44%-55.13% of laboratories validated the reference interval when citing industry standards. The reference interval grouping of most laboratories (89.37%-91.69%) cited in RBC, Hgb and Hct were consistent with the industry standards. We compared the upper and lower limits of the reference intervals with that given by the industry standards, when the lower limit of the reference intervals of mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, absolute neutrophils count, absolute basophils count, absolute monocyte count, and lymphocyte percentage were compared. The upper limit of reference intervals of neutrophils percentage as well as upper and lower limits of reference intervals of mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin, absolute eosinophil count, basophils percentage, and monocyte percentage were also compared. The median and mode were equal and consistent with industry standards. For other labs, the upper and lower limits of the reference intervals were not consistent with the reference intervals given by the industry standards.Conclusion:The use of reference intervals for blood cell counting was not the same, and the implementation of industry standards was not optimistic. A considerable number of laboratories had not verified the reference intervals, so it was necessary to promote the industry standards for reference intervals.