초록
Reference interval is critical for interpreting laboratory results, monitoring response to therapy and predicting the prognosis of the patients in clinical settings. The aim of the present study was to update established reference intervals for routine hematologic and serum chemistry values for a population of clinically healthy dogs (range, 1-8 years) seen in an animal hospital. Blood was obtained by venipuncture while animals were physically restrained, and samples were analyzed for 9 chemistries on MS9-5H (Melot Schloesing Lab, France) and 6 hematology on Vet Test 8008 (IDEXX, USA). Data from 105 dogs (52 males and 53 females) for hematology and 113 dogs (37 males and 76 females) for chemistry were used to determine reference intervals using the parametric, nonparametric and bootstrap methods. Prior to analysis, all parameters were tested for normal distribution using Anderson-Darling criterion. Of the 9 biochemical analytes, alkaline phosphatase, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, creatinine, total protein, and glucose concentrations did not fit normal distribution for both original and transformed data. All but eosinophil count satisfied normal distribution for either original or transformed data. Parametric method can be used for original cholesterol concentrations, RBC, WBC, and neutrophil counts. This technique can also be used for power-transformed values of blood urea nitrogen concentrations and for logarithm of lymphocyte and monocyte counts. Non-parametric or bootstrap method was the preferred choice for the remaining 7 biochemical parameters and eosinophil count as they did not follow normal distributions. All three statistical techniques performed in similar reference intervals. When establishing reference intervals for clinical laboratory data, it is essential to assess the distribution of the original data to increase the accuracy of the interval, and non-parametric or bootstrap methods are of alternative for the data that do not fit normal distribution.
