Diurnal variation of leukocyte counts affects the indirect estimation of reference intervals

Abstract

It has been observed that the estimation of reference intervals of leukocytes in whole venous blood leads to higher upper reference limits (uRLs) with indirect methods than has been reported in the literature determined by direct approaches. This phenomenon was reinvestigated with a newer, more advanced indirect method, and could be confirmed. Furthermore, a diurnal variation was observed with lower values during the morning and higher values in the late afternoon and at night. This observation can explain why indirect approaches using samples collected during 24 h lead to higher uRLs than direct methods applied on samples collected presumably in the morning.

Keywords

• diurnal variation
• indirect reference intervals
• leukocyte reference intervals