Muse VP, Aguayo-Orozco A, Balaganeshan SB, Brunak S. Population-wide analysis of hospital laboratory tests to assess seasonal variation and temporal reference interval modification.
Patterns (N Y) 2023;
4:100778. [PMID:
37602220 PMCID:
PMC10435957 DOI:
10.1016/j.patter.2023.100778]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2022] [Revised: 03/24/2023] [Accepted: 05/26/2023] [Indexed: 08/22/2023]
Abstract
We identified mortality-, age-, and sex-associated differences in relation to reference intervals (RIs) for laboratory tests in population-wide data from nearly 2 million hospital patients in Denmark and comprising more than 300 million measurements. A low-parameter mathematical wave-based modification method was developed to adjust for dietary and environment influences during the year. The resulting mathematical fit allowed for improved association rates between re-classified abnormal laboratory tests, patient diagnoses, and mortality. The study highlights the need for seasonally modified RIs and presents an approach that has the potential to reduce over- and underdiagnosis, affecting both physician-patient interactions and electronic health record research as a whole.
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