AUTHOR=Mirzazadeh Mehdi , Webster Craig , Weerasinghe Gayani , Morris Thomas , James Tim , Shine Brian 

TITLE=UK Reference Intervals for Parathyroid Hormone Using Abbott Methods

JOURNAL=British Journal of Biomedical Science

VOLUME=80

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontierspartnerships.org/journals/british-journal-of-biomedical-science/articles/10.3389/bjbs.2023.11224

DOI=10.3389/bjbs.2023.11224

ISSN=2474-0896

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Background:</bold> Diagnosis of hyperparathyroidism requires measurement of parathyroid hormone (PTH) in the context of the plasma calcium and other factors, such as vitamin D status and renal function. Accurate classification depends upon an appropriate population reference interval. We examined local population plasma PTH reference intervals at four different UK sites using a common platform.</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> Plasma PTH results were extracted from laboratory information systems at four different UK sites, all using the Abbott Architect i2000 method. We included only people with normal adjusted serum calcium, magnesium, vitamin D, and renal function. Following outlier rejection lower and upper reference limits were derived.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> An overall reference interval for plasma PTH of 3.0–13.7 pmol/L was observed using a non-parametric approach compared to 2.9–14.1 pmol/L using a parametric approach, notably higher than the manufacturer’s representative range of 1.6–7.2 pmol/L. We also noted statistically significant differences (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.00001) between some sites with upper limits ranging from 11.5 to 15.8 pmol/L which may be due to different population characteristics of each group.</p><p><bold>Conclusion:</bold> Locally derived reference intervals may be beneficial for UK populations and revised upper thresholds are necessary when using the Abbott PTH method to avoid inappropriate classification of patients as having hyperparathyroidism.</p>