Components of biological, including seasonal, variation in hematological measurements and plasma fibrinogen concentrations in normal humans

Abstract

This study has been carried out in order to examine the components of biological and, in particular, seasonal variation in hematologic measurements in normal humans. Toward this end, 26 normal volunteers had monthly blood samplings during one calendar year for determination of number of red blood cells (RBC) and platelets, hemoglobin (Hb), hematocrit (Ht), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), MC Hb (MCH), MC Hb concentration (MCHC), RBC distribution width (RDW), mean platelet volume (MPV), platelet distribution width (PDW), plateletcrit (PCT), and plasma fibrinogen concentrations. The data were analyzed by means of spectral analyses of a group of time series or a single time series, and by means of repeated measures analyses of variance. Most of the hematologic variables show seasonal rhythms, such as annual rhythms or harmonics, which are expressed as a group phenomenon. An important part of the variance ( > 15%) in Ht, MCV, MCH, MCHC, RDW, number of platelets, MPV and plasma fibrinogen was explained by a yearly variation. The peak-trough differences (expressed as a percentage of the mean) in the yearly variations in number of RBC, Ht, MCV, MCH, MCHC and RDW were very low (all < 8.5%). Number of platelets (14.4%) and plasma fibrinogen values (28%) showed a high-amplitude yearly variation. All hematological variables, except MCHC, show a high interindividual variability which exceeds by far the intraindividual variability.