Personalized ranges for blood-test results enable precision diagnostics

Blood tests are fundamental to modern medicine, and are typically interpreted against broad reference ranges, based on population averages. Yet this standard approach overlooks a crucial point — many blood measurements (biomarkers) are highly individualized and regulated around unique stable values called setpoints, which differ between people. For many people, their ‘normal’ blood values fall within a narrow range — one that is much smaller than the population-based reference range¹. Writing in Nature, Foy et al.² present evidence that underscores the importance of these personalized setpoints, analysing decades of blood-test data across nine key parameters. The authors’ findings suggest that integrating personalized reference intervals into clinical diagnostics could bring about a new level of precision medicine.

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