Lack of Age-Appropriate Reference Intervals Causing Potentially Missed Alerts in Clinical Reports of Dyslipidemia.

Sena, Cecilia; Ohene-Adjei, Michael; Deng, Shuliang; Patibandla, Nandan; May, Benjamin; de Ferranti, Sarah D; Starc, Thomas J; Thaker, Vidhu V · J Pediatr · 2023

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Abstract

This study shows that only 12.5% of laboratory reports (2/16) included age-appropriate pediatric reference ranges for all lipid and lipoproteins. The use of erroneous reference range(s) could lead to missed alerts of dyslipidemia in up to 97.3% (total cholesterol), 93.6% (high-density lipoprotein cholesterol), 94.8% (low-density lipoprotein cholesterol), and 87.8% (triglycerides) of youth in the population-based National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey cohort. These findings highlight the potential missed opportunities for reinforcing lifestyle counseling for dyslipidemia in addition to obesity in youth.

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