Welcome to CALIPER!

CALIPER = Canadian Laboratory Initiative on Pediatric Reference Intervals

CALIPER is a nation-wide health initiative aimed at improving the diagnosis and monitoring of children and adolescents with medical concerns. Our main objective is to establish a comprehensive database of healthy reference intervals for blood test results in children and adolescents. CALIPER is designed to fill the gaps that currently exist in accurately interpreting blood test results, and improve the care of children at SickKids, as well as other children’s hospitals across Canada and the world.

Our current research focus

Pregnancy & Infancy

The Mother & Child Health Initiative aims to establish a comprehensive database of healthy reference intervals for blood tests in pregnant women.

Early Childhood

The CALIPER Early Childhood Study aims to develop more accurate reference standards for young children who are 0-5 years of age.

COVID-19

The COVID-19 Study aims to determine and monitor SARS-CoV-2 exposure in children of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

Obesity & Metabolism

The Lipid Metabolism in Adolescents Study aims to examine lipid metabolism biomarkers in adolescents with insulin resistance and obesity.

The CALIPER Database

We’ve established a comprehensive database of age- and sex-specific reference standards for over 180 tests of health and disease, including biochemical, endocrine and fertility markers, as well as many special chemistry evaluations based on data from thousands of healthy children and teens from birth to 18 years old.

Learn More about the database
Visit the Database
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