Establishment of Haematological Reference Values for Healthy Individuals Attending Ruhengeri Referral Hospital in Rwanda

Background: The Laboratory investigations are very important for reaching to definitive diagnosis of diseases orientation and thus enabling optimal patient management based on informed diagnoses. Decision, and these are very difficult to obtain in the absence of reference values. In many cases, laboratory diagnosis such as haematological analyses are dependent on pre-defined locally established reference values. Objective of the study: The objective of this study was to describe ranges of haematological reference values for healthy individuals attending Ruhengeri referral Hospital in Rwanda Methodology: The cross sectional study was carried out in Northern Province at Ruhengeri referral hospital from July 2018 to September 2018. Participants were 252 healthy individuals aged less than one year to 68 years. From each participant, 4mL of blood samples were collected using K3 EDTA containers, and then analysed by Sysmex XS-500i automated haematology analyser. Results: Haemoglobin levels varied with age and sex. The level decreased with the increasing age, and males had high haemoglobin level than females (15.69g/dL versus 14.46g/dL). Minimum mean values of haematological parameters for study participants were slightly on the high side with narrow confidence intervals compared to the Manufactured Sysmex values. Conclusion: The findings may be used to define normal haematological values for Rwandan population and help physicians to better define haematological abnormalities in patients.