Young D S
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104-4283.
Arch Pathol Lab Med. 1992 Jul;116(7):704-9.
A brief overview of the concept of the reference interval and its application in medical practice is presented. The populations from whom it is possible to derive reference intervals are discussed. Procedures used to develop reference intervals from both a selected healthy population and from hospitalized patients are discussed, and the influence of statistical method on presented reference intervals is reviewed. However, the weakness of using a reference interval derived from a population of individuals to facilitate interpretation of test results is illustrated in relationship to the variability of test results within an individual. In spite of the efforts that are made within the clinical laboratory through development of reference intervals to provide maximum guidance to clinicians to facilitate their proper interpretation of test values in patients, it is apparent that much of the carefully derived scientific information is ignored in actual practice.
本文简要概述了参考区间的概念及其在医学实践中的应用。讨论了可从中得出参考区间的人群。探讨了从选定的健康人群和住院患者中制定参考区间所使用的程序，并回顾了统计方法对所呈现的参考区间的影响。然而，相对于个体内检测结果的变异性，使用从个体人群得出的参考区间来辅助检测结果的解释存在的弱点也得到了说明。尽管临床实验室通过制定参考区间做出了努力，以便为临床医生提供最大程度的指导，促进他们对患者检测值的正确解释，但很明显，在实际实践中，许多精心得出的科学信息被忽视了。
