Intra-individual variation in the concentrations of IgA, IgG, IgM, and complement component C3 in serum of a normal adult population.

A recent study [Clin. Chem. 22, 1635 (1976)] reported intra-individual variation in 10 serum proteins to be much smaller than interindividual variation. We report results of a similar study involving about 700 apparently healthy adults in whom we estimated the relative magnitude of the intra- and interindividual variation in serum IgA, IgG, IgM and complement component C3. Specimens were collected from each subject weekly for as long as 10 weeks (average, four weeks). The four serum proteins were quantitated by radial immunodiffusion by the maximal-diffusion technique. Traditional 95% reference intervals were computed relative to WHO reference preparations for the immunoglobulins. For C3, the reference interval was computed relative to a commercial reference preparation. We, too, found the ratios of intra-individual to interindividual variation for adults to be so small that the traditional reference intervals do not have the assumed diagnostic sensitivities. Furthermore, these ratios did not change after dividing the study population into subgroups according to sex and age; evidently such subgrouping do not improve the diagnostic sensitivity. The relatively small intra-individual variations were also observed at the extremes of protein concentration ranges.