Reference intervals for Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1) from birth to senescence: Results from a multicenter study using a new automated chemiluminescence IGF-1 immunoassay conforming to recent international recommendations.

Context: Measurement of IGF-1 is a cornerstone in diagnosis and monitoring of GH-related diseases, but considerable discrepancies exist between analytical methods. A recent consensus conference defined criteria for validation of IGF-1 assays and for establishment of normative data. Objectives: Our objectives were development and validation of a novel automated IGF-1 immunoassay (iSYS; Immunodiagnostic Systems) according to international guidelines and establishment of method-specific age- and sex-adjusted reference intervals and analysis of their robustness. Setting and Participants: We conducted a multicenter study with samples from 12 cohorts from the United States, Canada, and Europe including 15ü014 subjects (6697 males and 8317 females, 0-94 years of age). Main Outcome Measures: We measured concentrations of IGF-1 as determined by the IDS iSYS IGF-1 assay. Results: A new IGF-1 assay calibrated against the recommended standard (02/254) and insensitive to the 6 high-affinity IGF binding proteins was developed and rigorously validated. Age- and sex-adjusted reference intervals derived from a uniquely large cohort reflect the age-related pattern of IGF-1 secretion: a decline immediately after birth followed by an increase until a pubertal peak (at 15 years of age). Later in life, values decrease continuously. The impact of gender is small, although across the lifespan, women have lower mean IGF-1 concentrations. Geographical region, sampling setting (community or hospital based), and rigor of exclusion criteria in our large cohort did not affect the reference intervals. Conclusions: Using large cohorts of well-characterized subjects from different centers allowed construction of robust reference ranges for a new automated IGF-1 assay. The strict adherence to recent consensus criteria for IGF-1 assays might facilitate clinical application of the results