J Korean Acad Fam Med.  1997 Jan;18(1):29-38.

Differences in clinical laboratory data between the healthy elderly and the healthy young adults

• Won CW
• Shin DH
• Lee H

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The elderly is known to have many different clinical laboratory data compared with the young adults. But, in Korea, such study is lacking.
METHODS
We gathered 98 healthy elderly cases and 98 healthy young adult controls who have taken periodic health examination from January 1993 to May 1996 at one hospital and we compared the mean of various clinical laboratory data between the two groups.
RESULTS
In both sexes, cholesterol, ESR, glucose were significantly higher in the elderly t,han in the controls and direct bilirubin was significantly lower in the elderly than in the controls(P<0.05). In men, albumin, calcium, hemoglobin were significantly lower in the elderly than in the controls and MCV was significantly higher in the elderly than in the controls(P<0.05). In women, alkaline phosphatase, LDH, triglyceride, GOT, GPT, T3,TSH, phosphate were significantly higher in the elderly than in the controls and total bilirubin, protein, uric acid were significantly lower in the elderly than in the controls(P<0.05). WBC count, platelet count, neutrophil count(%), lymphocyte count(%), eosinophil count (%), monocyte count(%), MCH, MCHC, BUN, creatinine, HDL were not significantly different between two groups.
CONCLUSIONS
Many clinical laboratory data are different between the elderly and the young adults, and some clinical laboratory data have sexual differences.

MeSH Terms

Aged*
Alkaline Phosphatase
Bilirubin
Calcium
Cholesterol
Creatinine
Eosinophils
Female
Glucose
Humans
Korea
Lymphocytes
Male
Monocytes
Neutrophils
Platelet Count
Triglycerides
Uric Acid
Young Adult*
Alkaline Phosphatase
Bilirubin
Calcium
Cholesterol
Creatinine
Glucose
Uric Acid