Characteristics and Clinical Application of Biochemical Indicators among Inpatients from Multiple Departments in a General Hospital

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the distribution patterns and inter-departmental differences of biochemical test indicators among inpatients from various clinical departments in a general hospital, and explore the characteristics of biochemical indicators corresponding to diseases of different systems. This study aims to provide objective data support and theoretical reference for the interpretation of clinical test results, auxiliary diagnosis of diseases and formulation of individualized diagnosis and treatment plans. Methods: A retrospective research method was adopted to collect biochemical test data of inpatients from multiple clinical departments in our hospital. A total of seven departments were enrolled, including Department of Infectious Diseases, Department of Neurosurgery & Thoracic Surgery, Department of Gastroenterology, Department of Cardiology, Department of Neurology, Department of Neurology II, and Department of Hepatobiliary, Gland and Vascular Surgery. We uniformly collected the first biochemical test results after admission, and each patient was included with only one set of test data. The detected indicators covered liver function, myocardial enzymes, electrolytes, nutritional markers, glucose and lipid metabolism indicators and other commonly used clinical biochemical items. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the mean values of indicators in each department, and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to compare the differences of biochemical indicators among different departments. Post-hoc multiple comparison was performed for indicators with significant overall differences to identify pairwise inter-departmental differences. The test level was set at α = 0.05. Results: A total of 597 valid cases were included in this study. Specifically, there were 138 cases in the Department of Hepatobiliary, Gland and Vascular Surgery, 127 cases in the Department of Cardiology, 117 cases in the Department of Neurology II, 76 cases in the Department of Infectious Diseases, 57 cases in the Department of Neurology, 50 cases in the Department of Gastroenterology, and 32 cases in the Department of Neurosurgery & Thoracic Surgery. Main diseases of each department were clarified: the Department of Hepatobiliary, Gland and Vascular Surgery mainly treated liver, biliary and pancreatic diseases; the Department of Cardiology mainly included patients with coronary heart disease, hypertension, heart failure and other cardiovascular diseases; the Department of Neurology and Department of Neurology II mainly admitted patients with cerebrovascular diseases, peripheral neuropathy and myopathy; the Department of Neurosurgery & Thoracic Surgery consisted of patients receiving craniocerebral and thoracic surgical operations; the Department of Gastroenterology mainly treated gastrointestinal bleeding and acute or chronic gastrointestinal diseases; the Department of Infectious Diseases focused on bacterial and viral infectious diseases. In terms of indicator distribution, the mean level of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) was the highest in patients from the Department of Gastroenterology. Creatine kinase (CK) was elevated in patients from the Department of Neurosurgery & Thoracic Surgery, Department of Neurology and Department of Neurology II. Serum calcium levels remained high in the Department of Cardiology and Department of Neurology II. Patients in the Department of Cardiology had relatively high albumin levels. Indicators related to hepatobiliary system including alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase ( γ -GT) in the Department of Hepatobiliary, Gland and Vascular Surgery were significantly higher than those in all other departments. The Department of Neurosurgery & Thoracic Surgery had the highest mean level of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), while total cholesterol (CHOL) was generally higher in the Department of Cardiology. The results of one-way ANOVA showed that inter-departmental differences of CK, serum calcium, total protein (TP), albumin (ALB), ALT, AST, total bilirubin (TBIL), direct bilirubin (DBIL), indirect bilirubin (IBIL), ALP, γ -GT, CHOL and HDL-C were statistically significant (P 0.05). Conclusion: Biochemical indicators of inpatients vary distinctly across different clinical departments, and the characteristics of indicators are highly consistent with the pathological changes and organ involvement of corresponding diseases. In clinical practice, biochemical results should be interpreted comprehensively combined with patients’ affiliated departments and disease types, instead of rigidly referring to a single reference range. It is essential to give full play to the role of biochemical tests in disease screening, condition assessment and therapeutic effect monitoring.