In conclusion, we present the chemistry and haematology reference intervals from a Liberian population of healthy individuals for men and women and for children/adolescents and adults. While we used statistical methods that attempted to remove outliers to establish a 'healthy' population, and that typically removed about 1% - 3% of participants from the group where normal ranges were calculated using 2.5% and 97.5% percentiles, our cohort is likely to include some participants with undiagnosed illnesses. We recommend that additional laboratory-based studies be conducted to establish suitable laboratory reference limits for Liberia.Ī limitation to this study is that we based our definition of 'healthy' participants largely on a self-reported medical history. To our knowledge, this is the first report of laboratory reference limits from a Liberian population. Statistical significance was set at p 2500 adults and nearly 700 children/adolescents) studied with common laboratory methods in two research studies, allowing for more precise estimates of laboratory percentiles on which the reference limits are based. Pairwise comparison (Dunn's test) was used to assess associations between median endometrial thickness and diagnostic category, and macroscopic tissue quantity in the postmenopausal group. The Kruskall-Wallis test was used to assess differences in endometrial thicknesses recorded for macroscopic quantity of tissue and diagnostic category. The chi-square and Fisher's exact tests were used to assess associations between the amount of tissue at grossing and diagnostic category, and the presence of endometrial tissue on histological examination. Only endometrial thicknesses reported in postmenopausal patients were used. Numerical data (age and endometrial thickness) were reported as medians with interquartile ranges, as these data were non-normally distributed. Categorical data (macroscopic tissue quantity, diagnostic category, diagnosis) were reported as frequencies.
Statistica TM version 13.0 (Dell, Round Rock, Texas, United States) and STATA version 15 (Statacorp, College Station, Texas, United States) were used in the statistical analysis. There was no patient follow-up or clinical record review. Where data were missing, no value was entered. All data were recorded on a datasheet and entered into an Excel (Microsoft, Redmond, Washington, United States) spreadsheet for statistical analysis.
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