Test Results - please quote reference ranges

[DeedIDo]

Good morning

I often comment on blood test results posted on the General Health board and I find that most times I have to ask posters to re-post including the reference ranges.

Reference ranges for blood tests vary from place to place according to the equipment used and it is not possible to interpret results accurately without them.

Would it be possible please to have a flash on the health boards asking posters to post reference ranges with test results?

Thank you

Hi @DeedIDo thanks for posting. Is this something that most posters would know about? Just thinking that if people didn't know about reference ranges in the first place, an instruction on the boards might not have the desired effect.

Every blood test result comes back like this example.

Serum B12 445 (191-770)

You can then place the actual result in the range.

The problem comes because ranges vary from place to place. Somebody recently posted an FT4 result of 11. Where I live, that's just within range, because the range is 9-26. It's low, but most GPs would probably say it's 'normal'. One of the major private labs, and some NHS labs use a range of 12-22, in which case that result of 11 would be under range and, according to the NHS Clinical Knowledge Summary, treatable. However, another range I have seen is something like 7-14, where a result of 11 is in the top 50% of the range and therefore deemed to be good.

Does that help?

Hi OP

Thanks for that - definitely helps.
We'll have a chat about it!