Abstract
BackgroundIn the era of evidence-based medicine, haematological reference intervals are essential for the interpretation of data for clinical decision-making, monitoring of treatment and research. It is not uncommon that reference intervals used in most African countries have been obtained from published scientific literature, textbooks, reagent/instrument manuals.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to determine haematological reference intervals of healthy adults in Bamenda, Cameroon.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional study conducted between June and November 2015. Participants were voluntary blood donors at the Blood Bank Service of the Regional Hospital Bamenda aged between 18 and 65 years. The mean, median and standard deviation of the mean were calculated for each haematological parameter. The 95th percentile reference intervals were determined using the 2.5th and 97.5th percentile. The differences between gender for all the parameters were evaluated using the Kruskal-Wallis test. Significance was determined at the 95% confidence level.ResultsOut of a total of 340 participants, 202 (59.4%) were men and 138 (40.6%) were women. The median red blood cell, haemoglobin, haematocrit and mean cell haemoglobin concentration were significantly higher in men than women (p < 0.001). The median white blood cell, absolute lymphocytes count, absolute granulocytes and platelet counts for men were significantly lower than those for women (p < 0.011).ConclusionWe propose that the present established haematological reference intervals in this study should be used for clinical management of patients and interpretation of laboratory data for research in Bamenda.
Highlights
Haematological reference intervals are essential for the interpretation of data for diagnosis, clinical decision-making and research in this era of evidence-based medicine
There is published literature to confirm that haematological reference intervals established in African populations[6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13]
The Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institute recommends that clinical laboratories establish and/or verify their local reference values.[21,23]
Summary
Haematological reference intervals are essential for the interpretation of data for diagnosis, clinical decision-making and research in this era of evidence-based medicine. Open Access differ significantly from those obtained from Caucasian populations.[5,14,15] Several factors, including inter- and intrapopulation variation among populations of the same race, age, sex, geographical origin, altitude, genetics, dietary patterns and ethnicity,[7,16,17,18,19,20] account for the differences in these reference intervals Pathogenic infections such as HIV, Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), syphilis and some haematological abnormalities generally influence the haematological intervals.[9,21,22] Besides, the Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institute recommends that clinical laboratories establish and/or verify their local reference values.[21,23]. It is not uncommon that reference intervals used in most African countries have been obtained from published scientific literature, textbooks, reagent/instrument manuals
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