Main findings
In our study we aimed to establish pregnancy-specific reference ranges for fasting and postprandial TSBA levels. Despite using restrictive exclusion criteria, we demonstrated that a normal reference range and upper reference limit in pregnancy are different from those established for the general non-pregnant population. Compared to the reference range of normal adults (0.28-6.5 µmol/L)21,36,37, we found significantly higher fasting TSBA (4.4-14.1 µmol/L) and postprandial TSBA (4.7-20.2 µmol/L) reference intervals in the pregnant population.
Our study confirms that TSBA levels increase in response to food intake and that differences between fasting and postprandial measurements are clinically and statistically significant11,29.