COMMON LABORATORY VALUES

COMMON LABORATORY VALUES

STEPHANIE ZIELINSKI, CPNP, DNP

COMMON LABORATORY VALUES

? Laboratory tests are an integral part of every day practice within health care.

? Lab work can help assess and diagnose patients with both acute and chronic illness.

COMMON LABORATORY TESTS

? Complete Blood Count with Differential ? Basic Metabolic Profile ? Iron Studies (TIBC, Ferritin) ? Thyroid Studies (TSH, Free t4) ? Vitamin D ? Lipid Panel

COMMON LABORATORY TESTS

? Complete Blood Count with Differential aka "CBC with Diff"

? Components of a CBC with differential:

? Total red blood cell count (RBC) ? Hemoglobin (Hgb) ? Hematocrit (Hct) ? Mean Corpuscular volume (MCV) ? Red blood cell distribution width (RDW) ? Total white blood cell count (WBC) ? A count (%) of each type of white blood cell (Neutrophils,

Lymphocytes, Monocytes, Eosinophils, Basophils) ? Platelet count

(The Mayo Clinic, 2016; Up to Date, 2016)

COMMON LABORATORY TESTS

? What does each finding mean?

? Total red blood cell count (RBC)- The count of the number of circulating red blood cells in 1 mm3 of peripheral venous blood.

? Hemoglobin (Hgb)- The measure of the amount of Hgb in the blood. Hgb constitutes over 90% of red blood cells.

COMMON LABORATORY TESTS

? A decrease in Hgb concentration means the patient is anemic.

? Anemia can be due to iron/B12/folate deficiency, blood disorders or other underlying pathology.

? And increase in Hgb concentration means the patient is polycythemic.

? Polycythemia can result from a large number of causes, including cancer, lung disease, heart defects and other underlying pathologies. Smoking and many lung conditions can cause an elevated Hgb due to chronic hypoxia.

COMMON LABORATORY TESTS

? Hematocrit- The measure of the percentage of the total blood volume that is made up by the red blood cells.

? Mean corpuscular volume (MCV)- a measure of the average size of a red blood cell. The MCV is important in classifying anemias:

? Normal MCV = normocytic anemia ? Decreased MCV = microcytic anemia ? Increased MCV = macrocytic anemia

COMMON LABORATORY TESTS

? Red blood cell distribution width- An indication of the variation of the red blood cell size (anisocytosis).

? In general an elevated RDW (more variation in the size of the RBC's) is associated with anemias with various deficiencies such as iron, B12 or folate deficiencies.

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