Establishment of hematological parameters referance interval For apparently healthy individuals ≥ 5 years of age in southwest Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Clinical laboratory reference intervals are an important tool for identifying abnormal laboratory results and for ultimately guiding patient management decisions. The setting of hematological parameters reference intervals for local population is very crucial to improve quality of health care. Objective: To determine hematological parameters reference interval for apparently healthy individuals in southwest Ethiopians. Methodology: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted from March 13, 2017 to May 30, 2017. A total of 998 apparently healthy individual were included in the study. Complete blood count was done by Sysmex XS-500i hematology analyzer (Sysmex Corporation Kobe, Japan). The data were first entered in to Epidata, cleaned and exported to SPSS-version 20 statistical software for analysis. The non-parametric independent Kruskal-Wallis test and Wilcoxon rank-sum test (Mann-Whitney U test) were used to compare the distribution of the parameters among age groups and between genders. Result: Most of the hematological parameters show significant age differences between all age group reference intervals for both male and females. Significant differences by gender were not detected for many of the indices in children age group. In adult and geriatric age groups males had significantly higher values of red blood cell, hemoglobin and hematocrit compared to females (p<0.001). And also statistically significance sex differences were observed among adult age group by having adult female participants higher platelet and lower eosinophil count than adult male participants (p<0.05). Conclusion: This study provided local reference interval which can be used to guide patient management and interpretation of laboratory findings and potentially improve the quality of health care in southwest Ethiopia