Using personalized reference points in routine blood tests could improve patient health assessments and help diagnose diseases sooner, a recent Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital study found.
The study, published Dec. 11 in Nature, analyzed data from 12,000 adults who received multiple complete blood count (CBC) tests across 20 years. CBC screenings assess a patient's overall health using a single blood sample, typically compared against standardized reference points. Patients' CBC ranges can shift due to genetics, disease history and age. Individualizing the nine CBC set points — including red and white blood cell counts, platelet counts, hemoglobin levels and cell size — could differentiate individuals from 98% of other healthy adults.
"Our study suggests CBCs vary a lot from person to person even when completely healthy," senior author John Higgins, MD, professor of systems biology in the Center for Systems Biology and the department of pathology at Mass General, said in a Dec. 11 Harvard news release. "A more personalized approach could give more insight into a person’s health or disease."
Researchers found that creating individualized set points based on a person's unique characteristics and comparing new CBC results to past ones could provide a better picture of health. This approach may also help clinicians diagnose conditions like diabetes, heart disease and kidney failure at earlier stages.
The study also noted that personalized CBC set points are comparable to common disease screening factors currently used to predict risk. Adding CBC set points could improve the precision of disease screenings.