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Establishing reference intervals for sex hormones and SHBG in apparently healthy Chinese adult men based on a multicenter study

  • Songlin Yu , Ling Qiu , Min Liu , Shijun Li , Zhihua Tao , Qiong Zhang , Liangyu Xia , Pengchang Li , Li’an Hou , Xuzhen Qin , Yicong Yin , Kiyoshi Ichihara and Xinqi Cheng EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: May 5, 2018
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Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM)
From the journal Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM) Volume 56 Issue 7

Abstract

Background:

Measuring sex hormones is essential in diagnosing health issues such as testicular dysfunction, male infertility and feminization syndrome. However, there are no reports on reference intervals (RIs) in Chinese men. We conducted a nationwide multicenter study to establish RIs for seven sex hormones (luteinizing hormone [LH], follicle-stimulating hormone [FSH], prolactin [PRL], total testosterone [TT], free testosterone [FT], bioavailable testosterone [BAT] and estrogen [E2]), as well as sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG).

Methods:

In 2013, 1043 apparently healthy adult men from five representative cities in China (Beijing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Dalian and Urumqi) were recruited; hormones were measured using an automated immunoassay analyzer. Multiple regression analysis (MRA) was performed to identify sources of variation (SVs) that might influence the hormone serum levels. RIs were computed using the parametric method.

Results:

Dalian and Hangzhou had significantly higher E2 values than other cities; age was a major source of variation for FSH, LH, PRL, SHBG, FT and BAT. FSH, LH and SHBG increased significantly with age, while PRL, FT and BAT decreased with age. TT showed no significant age-related changes. Median (RIs) derived without partition by age were as follows: FSH, 5.6 (1.9–16.3) IU/L; LH, 4.2 (1.6–10.0) IU/L; PRL, 189 (88–450) mIU/L; E2, 85 (4.7–195) pmol/L; SHBG, 29.4 (11.5–66.3) nmol/L; TT, 15.6 (7.4–24.5) nmol/L; FT, 0.31 (0.16–0.52) nmol/L; and BAT, 8.0 (3.7–13.2) nmol/L. RIs were also derived in accordance with between-city and between-age differences.

Conclusions: RIs were established for sex hormones and SHBG in apparently healthy Chinese men in consideration of age.

Keywords: men; reference interval; sex hormone
Corresponding author: Xinqi Cheng, MD, Department of Clinical Laboratory, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, No. 1 Shuaifu Yuan, Dongcheng District, Beijing 100730, P.R. China, Phone: +86-01069159707, Fax: +86-01069159712
aSonglin Yu, Ling Qiu, Min Liu, Shijun Li, Zhihua Tao and Qiong Zhang contributed equally to the manuscript.

  1. Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.

  2. Research funding: This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81702060, 81201337), Funder Id: 10.13039/501100001809, and by research grants from the China National Clinical Key Subject Program and the National Key Technology Research and Development Support program (2015BAI32H00).

  3. Employment or leadership: None declared.

  4. Honorarium: None declared.

  5. Competing interests: The funding organization(s) played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.

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Supplemental Material:

The online version of this article offers supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2017-0749).

Received: 2017-8-23
Accepted: 2018-1-2
Published Online: 2018-5-5
Published in Print: 2018-6-27

©2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2017-0749
Keywords for this article
men; reference interval; sex hormone

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Editorial
  3. Free light chains in the cerebrospinal fluid. Do we still need oligoclonal IgG?
  4. Reviews
  5. Obese phenotype and natriuretic peptides in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction
  6. Prognostic value of HE4 in patients with ovarian cancer
  7. Opinion Paper
  8. Laboratory hemostasis: from biology to the bench
  9. Genetics and Molecular Diagnostics
  10. Multicenter validation study for the certification of a CFTR gene scanning method using next generation sequencing technology
  11. General Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
  12. IL8 and IL16 levels indicate serum and plasma quality
  13. “Send & hold” clinical decision support rules improvement to reduce unnecessary testing of vitamins A, E, K, B1, B2, B3, B6 and C
  14. CSF free light chain identification of demyelinating disease: comparison with oligoclonal banding and other CSF indexes
  15. Search for new biomarkers of pediatric multiple sclerosis: application of immunoglobulin free light chain analysis
  16. The importance of detecting anti-DFS70 in routine clinical practice: comparison of different care settings
  17. Higher D-lactate levels are associated with higher prevalence of small dense low-density lipoprotein in obese adolescents
  18. LC-MSMS assays of urinary cortisol, a comparison between four in-house assays
  19. Optimized angiotensin-converting enzyme activity assay for the accurate diagnosis of sarcoidosis
  20. Quantitative urine test strip reading for leukocyte esterase and hemoglobin peroxidase
  21. Performance evaluation of cobas HBV real-time PCR assay on Roche cobas 4800 System in comparison with COBAS AmpliPrep/COBAS TaqMan HBV Test
  22. Systematic comparison of routine laboratory measurements with in-hospital mortality: ICU-Labome, a large cohort study of critically ill patients
  23. Reference Values and Biological Variations
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  25. Plasma midregional proadrenomedullin (MR-proADM) concentrations and their biological determinants in a reference population
  26. Cancer Diagnostics
  27. Analytical validation of the Hevylite assays for M-protein quantification
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  29. Assessing matrix, interferences and comparability between the Abbott Diagnostics and the Beckman Coulter high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I assays
  30. Infectious Diseases
  31. Evaluation of a novel prognostic score based on thrombosis and inflammation in patients with sepsis: a retrospective cohort study
  32. Letters to the Editor
  33. Independent evaluation using fresh patient samples under real clinical conditions is vital for confirming the suitability and marketability of any new HbA1c assay. An example
  34. Anti-streptavidin antibodies mimicking heterophilic antibodies in thyroid function tests
  35. Site-specific DNA methylation detection based on enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using recombinant methyl-CpG binding protein
  36. 3q29 microduplication in a small family with complex metabolic phenotype from Southern Italy
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  39. Cellular markers of eryptosis are altered in type 2 diabetes
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