Population specific calcium adjusting equation
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Derivation of adult population-dependent calcium adjusted equations
IRAS ID
205694
Contact name
Nuthar Jassam
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Calcium measurement is critical for the assessment of bone diseases. Clinical laboratories report measurement of serum calcium adjusted to albumin concentration in blood and they use a regression equation for this purpose. The current practice is consistent with the use of a single calcium adjustment equation, which is derived from in-patient population and applied to all patients irrespective of patient age, gender, or patient groups. This practice however, has a number of limitations and several researchers have challenged this concept and reported that an enhanced equation performance for calcium adjustment can be seen when the equation are specifically designed for specific populations ie the ones from which the equation has been derived.
The use of a single equation to adjust calcium results can lead to an over estimation of calcium in in-patient population and underestimation of calcium in the community population. This may result in misclassification of patients calcium status and may lead to unnecessary investigations or delay necessary investigations.
In this study, we aim to derive and assess the performance of three newly derived population- dependent equations. These are equations for in-patient, out-patient and primary care population. We will validate these equations by comparing their outcome to a gold standard calcium test; ionised calcium.
We will recruit a population of healthy subjects for this study. Participants will be healthy adults with no evidence of bone metabolic disease, renal disease, haematological disease or cancer. This study will be undertaken in Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust. The main determinant for the length of the study is the collection of blood samples from a minimum of 75 subjects. A single sample of 3 x 5 ml tubes and 1 x 2.5 ml per volunteer is required.REC name
HSC REC A
REC reference
17/NI/0010
Date of REC Opinion
6 Feb 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion