A Journey into Indirect Reference Intervals: New Opportunities from Laboratory Big Data

Course overview

Reference intervals are fundamental to the clinical interpretation of laboratory results. This presentation will take participants on a journey through historical and emerging concepts in veterinary and human reference interval development, exploring how novel indirect methods can leverage large laboratory datasets to generate representative and clinically relevant reference limits. We will examine the principles behind indirect reference interval models and discuss how these approaches can be used to improve diagnostic accuracy through the development of breed-, age-, and sex-specific reference intervals. Practical applications will also include the use of indirect methods to verify externally sourced reference intervals within a laboratory's own patient population and support periodical refinement of existing reference limits.