Figure 5

25(OH)D immunoassay – results by reference intervals. A. Figure legend showing the colors representing reference intervals used in B through H. An asterisk (*) is indicated next to the >80 ng/mL intervals (blue) in A and B, as this interval often contains too few specimens to be easily visible at this magnification (also evident in C through H). B. Presentation of population data as area plots. For any given group (for example, WCMC female patients age 45 shown here) the percent of patients that fall into specific reference intervals can be represented as a pie chart (B, left example). To the right of the pie chart is a “proportional stacked plot” (B, middle) that shows the same data, but now stacked by color-coded reference intervals (low to high) such that the sum of all areas equals 100%. These data can also be presented as a narrower stacked color-coded “single line” (B, right). Graphing “single line” area plots for all ages (aligned by increasing age) produce the area plots shown below. C - H. Area plots show the reference interval distributions for all ages (0–100 yrs; 1 yr bins) in females (C , E , G) and males (D , F, H) at WCMC (C , D), UIHC (E , F) and ARUP (G , H). The UIHC dataset does not include any males greater than 97 years old (F). Overlying reference lines (dotted) have been added at 20% intervals to all area plots (C - H) to facilitate comparison across graphs.