title: Laboratory reference values of complete blood count for apparently healthy adults in Ethiopia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The objective of this study was to evaluate reference intervals for complete blood cell count parameters among apparently healthy 1,807 adults from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Blood specimens were collected from each participant using standard procedures. The collected aliquots were processed according to standard operating procedures to determine participants' complete blood counts. Non-parametric methods were employed to calculate the reference intervals and 90% confidence intervals for complete blood counts.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall the results show that reference ranges for women are lower than men. The white blood cell count, neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte, eosinophil, and basophil reference values appear to be lower than values reported elsewhere.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study is the first comprehensive study on reference intervals of complete blood count among apparently healthy adults in Ethiopia. Future studies that assess other hematological parameters and studies that assess reference values for African pediatric populations are warranted.
authors: Department of Epidemiology, Multidisciplinary International Research Training Program, University of Washington School of Public Health, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. mirt@uw.edu
authors: B
authors: B
authors: Gelaye
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Bekele
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Khali
authors: Y
authors: Y
authors: Haddis
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Lemma
authors: Y
authors: Y
authors: Berhane
authors: M A
authors: MA
authors: Williams
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000531:Altitude; D001772:Blood Cell Count; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D004032:Diet; D005002:Ethiopia; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014505:Urban Population; D055815:Young Adult