J. Robbins et al., HEMATOLOGICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL LABORATORY VALUES IN OLDER CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH STUDY PARTICIPANTS, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 43(8), 1995, pp. 855-859
OBJECTIVE: To define reference hematologic and biochemical lab values
in older individuals. DESIGN: Randomly selected, age- and gender-strat
ified participants. SETTING: Visits by participants to four research c
linics. PATIENTS: A total of 5201 participants in the Cardiovascular H
ealth Study, an observational study of older Medicare-eligible individ
uals living at home. MEASUREMENT: Information about health status, pre
vious illness, and medication use was obtained from participants and/o
r their MDs. This information was used to define a healthy subset of t
he population. Blood samples were obtained for Cholesterol, HDL and LD
L cholesterol, fasting and 2-hour postload glucose and insulin, fibrin
ogen, factors VII and VIII, potassium, creatinine, albumin, uric acid,
white blood count, hematocrit, hemoglobin, and platelet count. RESULT
S: Significant differences were found for age group and/or gender for
all mean values. Many tests were significantly different from the gene
rally accepted reference ranges used in clinical laboratories. CONCLUS
IONS: In some situations accepted laboratory norms for the general pop
ulation can not be extrapolated to older adults. There are implication
s for both research and clinical practice.