Table IV. (Continued). Transferrin saturation (%) Males, all Males, without CVD Females, all Females, without CVD Triglycerides (mmol/L) Males, all Males, without CVD Females, all Females, without CVD Urate (mmol/L) Males, all Males, without CVD Females, all Females, without CVD Urea (mmol/L) Males, all Males, without CVD Females, all Females, without CVD 13 (10–16) 13 (9–18) 13 (12–14) 14 (12–16) 0.64 (0.58–0.69) 0.63 (0.58–0.69) 0.60 (0.51–0.69) 0.59 (0.50–0.67) 221 (201–242) 217 (196–238) 178 (170–187) 178 (168–188) 4.00 (3.73–4.27) 3.92 (3.58–4.26) 3.63 (3.51–3.75) 3.62 (3.50–3.74) – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Reference values 271 57 (54–60) 59 (55–63) 50 (45–55) 51 (46–56) 3.14 (2.63–3.66) 2.92 (2.54–3.30) 3.06 (2.48–3.63) 3.18 (2.57–3.78) 495 (474–515) 484 (455–512) 434 (401–467) 422 (397–446) 11.22 (9.75–12.69) 10.51 (9.08–11.94) 9.60 (9.14–10.07) 9.48 (8.74–10.21) between the two groups. For males only urate showed a signiﬁcant difference. Still, the reference interval limits for urate after exclusion of individuals with CVD remained within the 90% conﬁdence interval for all males. For females, only cholesterol, CRP, transferrin, and apolipoprotein ratio showed signiﬁcant differences between the groups at the P = 0.01 level. However, even if there were signiﬁcant differences between the groups the 90% conﬁdence interval for the reference values were not separated. The reference values with and with- out the CVD group are presented in Table IV. We chose to divide the reference values according to sex as most laboratory information systems handle sex-speciﬁc reference values. For several of the analytes the sex differences are small, and thus the same reference inter- val could be used for both sexes. The reference values were compared with the cor- responding values obtained in the Nordic Reference Interval Project presented in the Appendix (11,12), (available online at http://www.informahealth care.com/doi/abs/10.3109/03009734.2011.644873). In the present study the upper reference for ALT in men was signiﬁcantly lower than the value reported in NORIP but similar to the previous ﬁnding in this cohort at 70 years of age (8). The reference inter- vals for albumin, alkaline phosphatase, creatinine (females), g-glutamyltransferase, triglycerides, urate, and urea were slightly higher, while the reference intervals for bilirubin, cholesterol, and iron were slightly lower in comparison with NORIP. Thus, several of the reference values differed in comparison with the NORIP reference intervals. In conclusion, common reference values are important to facilitate collaboration and reduce errors caused by erroneous interpretation of test results. Several reference values in the literature are old. Considering the changes in society and the health care system, including the laboratory tests used, data that are older than 15–25 years may not be representative for today. In our opinion, reference values should be re-evaluated regularly to ensure that they still are appropriate for the patients of today. Sex- and age-speciﬁc reference values should be used to interpret results of laboratory tests. Acknowledgements This study was ﬁnancially supported by the Uppsala University Hospital Research Fund. Declaration of interest: The authors report no conﬂicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.