Abstract

Blood urea nitrogen (BUN) is a nitrogenous end product of protein metabolism. This study aims to explore the age- and sex-specific distribution of BUN among healthy Chinese adults. A total of 24,006 BUN values from healthy adults (14,148 males and 9858 females) were included in the cross-sectional study. Males had a higher median BUN value compared to females (4.6 mmol/L vs. 4.1 mmol/L). BUN values showed a positive correlation with body mass index (BMI), cholesterol, and blood sugar (P < 0.0001). However, eGFR showed a negative correlation with the BUN reference value (P < 0.0001) in both sexes. Multiple linear regression analysis confirmed that the positive associations of BUN levels and age were statistically significant after adjusting confounding factors (P < 0.001). Thus, the serum BUN values increased by 0.21 mmol/L for males and 0.282 mmol/L for females per 10 years. The BUN values corresponding to the 1st, 2.5th, 50th, 97.5th, and 99th percentiles for any specific age in both sex were also calculated. These results indicate that the serum BUN reference value is significantly affected by age and gender, and thus, its interpretation is age- and sex-dependent.

Details

Title
Age- and sex-specific reference intervals for blood urea nitrogen in Chinese general population
Author
Liu Qingquan 1 ; Wang, Yiru 1 ; Chen, Zhi 2 ; Guo Xiaolin 3 ; Lv Yongman 4 

 Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Department of Nephrology, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China (GRID:grid.412793.a) (ISNI:0000 0004 1799 5032) 
 Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Department of Geriatrics, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China (GRID:grid.412793.a) (ISNI:0000 0004 1799 5032) 
 Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Department of Urology, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China (GRID:grid.412793.a) (ISNI:0000 0004 1799 5032) 
 Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Department of Nephrology, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China (GRID:grid.412793.a) (ISNI:0000 0004 1799 5032); Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Department of Health Management Centre, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China (GRID:grid.412793.a) (ISNI:0000 0004 1799 5032) 
Publication year
2021
Publication date
2021
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2618748376
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2021. corrected publication 2022. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.