Our obsession with normal values

Abstract

Normal values provide the background for interpretation of quantitative imaging data and thus are essential information for daily routine. Nevertheless, the ways how normal values are obtained, presented and interpreted, often do not receive the attention they deserve. We review the concepts of normalcy, the implications of typical normal ranges including the types of distribution of normal data, the possibilities to index for confounding biological factors like body surface area and the limitations of the very concept of normal values, demonstrating that there are no easy statistical solutions for difficult clinical problems.