Leptin

Sample type

Serum

Uses

1-Biomarker for body fat metabolism

Precautions

No special precaution required

Interfering factor

1-Serum leptin concentrations increase with progressive obesity. The concentrations are higher in women than in men, for any measure of obesity, and they decrease with age in both women and men.

2-Pregnant women have higher serum leptin concentrations than nonpregnant women.

3-Serum leptin concentrations increase during childhood, with the highest concentrations in children who gain the most weight; higher serum leptin concentrations are associated with an earlier onset of puberty.

4-The concentrations are similar in normal subjects and patients of the same weight with type2 DM

Pre analytical errors

1-Pregnancy affect leptin concentration

Corrective action

Taking history of beginning of pregnancy

2-Metabolic disease affect leptin concentration

Corrective action

Taking history of disease of the patient

Post-analytical errors

1- Write another patient’s name on the report

The corrective action

Make sure you write the correct name on the report

2-Writing a wrong result in the report

The corrective action

If the report is not delivered to the patient and this error is discovered the correct result must be written, but if the report is delivered to the patient, must communicate with him and tell him that an error has occurred and replace the report with the report in which there is the correct result.

Reference range

Male: 0.5–12.7 ng/mL

Female: 3.9–30.0 ng/mL