Aim Serum pepsinogen (sPG) has been used to help in diagnosing atrophic corpus gastritis and in screening for gastric cancer non-invasively. There are as yet no reports on sPG reference intervals (RIs) with latex enhanced turbidimetric immunoassay (LIA). In this study, we established the RIs for sPG in a healthy Chinese population using LIA.

Methods Serum PGI and PGII levels in a healthy population (aged 17–80 years) were measured simultaneously using LIA. RIs were determined following Clinical Laboratory and Standards Institute C28-A3 guidelines using a non-parametric method.

Results 95% RIs in men (ng/mL) were: ≤40 years old, 25.53–100.76 for PGI and ≤24.42 for PGII; 41–50 years old, 26.62–124.74 for PGI and ≤26.81 for PGII; and 51–80 years old, 30.40–153.25 for PGI and ≤32.62 for PGII. Corresponding RIs for women (ng/mL) were: ≤40 years old, 21.20–87.44 for PGI and ≤25.53 for PGII; and 41–80 years, 26.40–127.46 for PGI and ≤30.18 for PGII. 95% RI for PGI/PGII in both men and women at any age was ≥2.51.

Conclusions We established the RIs for sPG using LIA in a healthy Chinese population, which can provide a reference for clinical and laboratory studies.