Establishment of Hematological Reference Values among Healthy Adults in Bamenda, North West Region of Cameroon

Abstract

The use of the reference range of values of a laboratory test is highly significant in diagnostic accuracy. However, race and ethnic variations may affect the safe use of reference ranges from a different setting/population. Because the establishment of reference ranges for the Cameroonian population will possibly improve the quality of health care, this study was designed to establish hematological reference ranges among healthy adults in Bamenda, North West region of Cameroon. This was a cross-sectional study carried out within the period of five months from February 2020 to June 2020, at the Bamenda Regional Hospital. A total of 350 (139 females and 211 males) study participants who met the inclusion criteria were included in the study. The Urit 3300 autoanalyzer (Urit Medical Electronic (Group) Co., Ltd, Guilin, China) was used to analyze the hematological parameters. The general health questionnaire for donors, for verification of reference range study and laboratory tests, was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics were used to calculate reference ranges, means, and medians at 95% confidence intervals. Maximum and minimum reference ranges were computed at 97.5th and 2.5th percentiles. The nonparametric test (Mann-Whitney test) was used to determine the significance of the difference in hematological values between the male and female groups. Three (MID%, LYM#, and MID#) out of the 19 hematological parameters were verified, while sixteen (WBC, LYM%, GRAN%, GRAN#, RBC, HGB, HCT%, MCV, MCH, MCHC, RDW_CV, RDW_SD, PLT, MPV, PDW, and PCT%) were established. The currently used reference intervals do not represent the population of the North West region. Therefore, other regional hospitals in Cameroon should establish reference intervals applicable to their respective regions.