Verification of sex- and age-specific reference intervals for 13 serum steroids determined by mass spectrometry: evaluation of an indirect statistical approach

Objectives: Conventionally, reference intervals are established by direct methods, which require a well-characterized, obviously healthy study population. This elaborate approach is time consuming, costly and has rarely been applied to steroid hormones measured by mass spectrometry. In this feasibility study, we investigate whether indirect methods based on routine laboratory results can be used to verify reference intervals from external sources. Methods: A total of 11,259 serum samples were used to quantify 13 steroid hormones by mass spectrometry. For indirect estimation of reference intervals, we applied a "modified Hoffmann approach", and verified the results with a more sophisticated statistical method (refineR). We compared our results with those of four recent studies using direct approaches. Results: We evaluated a total of 81 sex- and age-specific reference intervals, for which at least 120 measurements were available. The overall agreement between indirectly and directly determined reference intervals was surprisingly good as nearly every fourth reference limit could be confirmed by narrow tolerance limits. Furthermore, lower reference limits could be provided for some low concentrated hormones by the indirect method. In cases of substantial deviations, our results matched the underlying data better than reference intervals from external studies. Conclusions: Our study shows for the first time that indirect methods are a valuable tool to verify existing reference intervals for steroid hormones. A simple "modified Hoffmann approach" based on the general assumption of a normal or lognormal distribution model is sufficient for screening purposes, while the refineR algorithm may be used for a more detailed analysis.