Reporting in BC laboratories: Transition to new formulas

Issue: BCMJ, vol. 57, No. 2, March 2015, Pages 72-73 News

BC introduced estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) reporting in 2004 as per international recommendations to facilitate early recognition of patients with chronic kidney disease. Currently all laboratories in BC report eGFR values whenever a serum or plasma creatinine is ordered on an ambulatory patient. As of 15 December 2014, all BC chemistry laboratories calculate and report eGFR values using a new set of improved formulas. Specifically, the internationally endorsed formula entitled the chronic kidney disease epidemiology collaboration formula (CKD EPI) eGFR will replace the previously used MDRD formula. This new calculation for eGFR values will not change the manner in which they are interpreted: they are interpreted in conjunction with the urinary albumin measurement as a means to detect and manage chronic kidney disease (www.bcguidelines.ca/pdf/ckd.pdf). If you have questions about this change, contact your local laboratory’s medical director.

. Reporting in BC laboratories: Transition to new formulas. BCMJ, Vol. 57, No. 2, March, 2015, Page(s) 72-73 - News.


Above is the information needed to cite this article in your paper or presentation. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommends the following citation style, which is the now nearly universally accepted citation style for scientific papers:
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347:284-7.

About the ICMJE and citation styles

The ICMJE is small group of editors of general medical journals who first met informally in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1978 to establish guidelines for the format of manuscripts submitted to their journals. The group became known as the Vancouver Group. Its requirements for manuscripts, including formats for bibliographic references developed by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), were first published in 1979. The Vancouver Group expanded and evolved into the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which meets annually. The ICMJE created the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals to help authors and editors create and distribute accurate, clear, easily accessible reports of biomedical studies.

An alternate version of ICMJE style is to additionally list the month an issue number, but since most journals use continuous pagination, the shorter form provides sufficient information to locate the reference. The NLM now lists all authors.

BCMJ standard citation style is a slight modification of the ICMJE/NLM style, as follows:

  • Only the first three authors are listed, followed by "et al."
  • There is no period after the journal name.
  • Page numbers are not abbreviated.


For more information on the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, visit www.icmje.org

BCMJ Guidelines for Authors

Leave a Reply