Aim: Serum pepsinogen (sPG) has been used to help in diagnosing atrophic corpus gastritis and in screening for gastric cancer non-invasively. There are as yet no reports on sPG reference intervals (RIs) with latex enhanced turbidimetric immunoassay (LIA). In this study, we established the RIs for sPG in a healthy Chinese population using LIA.
Methods: Serum PGI and PGII levels in a healthy population (aged 17-80 years) were measured simultaneously using LIA. RIs were determined following Clinical Laboratory and Standards Institute C28-A3 guidelines using a non-parametric method.
Results: 95% RIs in men (ng/mL) were: ≤40 years old, 25.53-100.76 for PGI and ≤24.42 for PGII; 41-50 years old, 26.62-124.74 for PGI and ≤26.81 for PGII; and 51-80 years old, 30.40-153.25 for PGI and ≤32.62 for PGII. Corresponding RIs for women (ng/mL) were: ≤40 years old, 21.20-87.44 for PGI and ≤25.53 for PGII; and 41-80 years, 26.40-127.46 for PGI and ≤30.18 for PGII. 95% RI for PGI/PGII in both men and women at any age was ≥2.51.
Conclusions: We established the RIs for sPG using LIA in a healthy Chinese population, which can provide a reference for clinical and laboratory studies.
Keywords: GASTRIC CANCER; GASTRITIS; LABORATORY TESTS; diagnostic screening.