The reference value. What is it

Have you ever wondered about what are reference values? It should be noted that this topic applies to every person. To begin with, it is worth saying that the reference value is a medical term. It is used by specialists in the evaluation and conduct of special laboratory studies. In such studies, the reference value is obtained as a result of a mass survey of the entire healthy population. In addition, it is the average value of the laboratory indicator obtained as a result of the studies.

Currently, the reference value is most often used only in those studies in which some information is needed directly about the very object of this study. This is important for evaluating the result of any analysis. Normally, it falls into the so-called range of values, which is determined for the relevant part of the surveyed population, allocated by age, sex or some other indicator.

In addition to all the above, I would like to note that a group of healthy people is determined by sampling the initial target group. It is for her intended a special kind of surveys. At the next stage, most of the selected people are conducting any studies, as a result, a certain indicator is determined. In the future, the average value is calculated, and then the range of reference values. It is in turn equal to about two or three (plus-minus) standard deviations from the previously obtained mean.

The reference value as a term reflects, first of all, only the relative importance of all the results obtained in the studies. This is always taken into account by specialists. For example, such a reference value can be used only in a certain group of people. It is worth noting that if you evaluate the results of any studies, you can see that the reference values of absolutely different subgroups have significant differences. Of course, everything in this case depends on the sex, age signs of people. However, there are some common blood indicators, for example, in a group of women of twenty to thirty years. As for pregnant representatives of the weaker sex, for them such values will no longer be referential. This is due to the fact that in the body of expectant mothers there is a huge number of changes.

Experts argue that any reference values in some cases are not in a certain group of people absolute for any indicator. The thing is that at present there are many special indicators of research. For each of them standard reference values were not set. Not found such ranges for many reasons. In addition to all this, each laboratory today often sets its own ranges of reference values for itself. This is due to the significant differences in the equipment used in it, in methods and, oddly enough, in international or proprietary test systems, as well as units of measurement.

In conclusion, I would like to note that the reference value is, first of all, the value of the norm for any indicator. In addition, such ranges are often not taken into account at all. For example, they are not considered in cases of determining the content of any drug in the blood of a person who is in an unconscious state. In such a situation, the study is conducted in order to evaluate the effect of the substance on the human body, and not to determine the ratio of a similar concentration to the range of reference values. And there are a lot of such examples.