Association between fine particle exposure and common test items in clinical laboratory: A time-series analysis in Changsha, China.

Most studies on the health effects of PM (fine particulate matter with diameter smaller than 2.5 μm) use indirect indicators, such as mortality and number of hospital visits. Recent research shows that biomarkers can also be used to evaluate the health effects of PM; however, these biomarkers are not very common. Clinical laboratories can provide a significant amount of test data that have been proven to have important diagnostic value. Therefore, we use big data analysis methods to find the associations between clinical laboratory common test items and PM exposure. Data related to air pollution and meteorological information between 2014 and 2016 were obtained from the China National Environmental Monitoring Centre and the China National Meteorological Information Center. Additionally, data of 27 common test items from the same period were collected from Changsha Central Hospital. Primary analyses included a generalized additive model to analyze the associations between PM concentration and common test items; the model was adjusted for time trends, weather conditions (temperature and humidity), and days of the week. Furthermore, we adjusted the effects of other air pollutants, such as PM, SO, NO, CO, and O. 17 items such as TP, ALB, ALT, AST, TBIL, DBIL, UREA, CREA, UA, GLU, LDL, WBC, K, Cl, Ca, TT, and FIB were significantly positively associated with PM concentration (P< 0.05) and have concentration-response relationship. After adjusting the effect of PM+SO+NO+CO+O, TP, ALB, ALT, AST, TBIL, DBIL, UREA, CREA, UA, GLU, WBC, Cl, and Ca were still significantly associated with PM concentration (P< 0.05). This current study suggested that clinical laboratory common test items may be used to assess and predict the health effects of PM on the population.