Normal reference intervals of prognostic nutritional index in healthy adults: A large multi-center observational study from Western China

• Main Authors: Chen, Y. (Author), He, L. (Author), Li, T. (Author), Lin, Y. (Author), Luo, H. (Author), Wang, D. (Author), Yang, G. (Author), Yin, H. (Author), Yu, J. (Author), Zhang, G. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: John Wiley and Sons Inc 2021
• Subjects: adolescent; Adolescent; adult; Adult; aged; Aged; aging; Article; China; clinical trial; cohort analysis; cohort study; controlled study; female; Female; Han Chinese; health; Health; human; human cell; Humans; major clinical study; male; Male; medical examination; middle aged; Middle Aged; multicenter study; multi-center study; Nutrition Assessment; nutritional assessment; observational study; prognostic nutritional index; reference interval; reference value; Reference Values; reproducibility; Reproducibility of Results; retrospective study; sex difference; young adult; Young Adult
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 Background: It has been widely reported that the prognostic nutritional index (PNI) played a pivotal role in nutritional assessment of surgical patients and tumor prognosis. In order to improve the accuracy of evaluation in Western China, we established reference intervals (RIs) of PNI in healthy controls. Methods: A retrospective cohort study on healthy ethnic Han adults (18–79 years) was conducted to explore the influences of age, gender, study centers, and instruments on PNI and to establish RIs. The data came from a healthy routine examination center database and laboratory information system (LIS) of four centers in Western China, and there were 200 persons selected randomly for verification of RIs. Results: Five thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine healthy candidates were enrolled. PNI showed a marked gender dependence, and males had significantly higher PNI than females across all ages (p < 0.01). We found that PNI is significantly different between age groups (p < 0.01), the value of PNI tended to decrease with age increasing. There is also an obvious influence of centers and instruments on PNI (p < 0.01). Conclusions: We established reference intervals of PNI in healthy Han Chinese population in Western China and validated successfully. Further established RIs will lead to better standardizations of PNI for clinical applications. © 2021 The Authors. Journal of Clinical Laboratory Analysis published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.