Re: Interpreting blood test results

From: Manky Badger (spam_at_puritanDOTfreeserve.FULLSTOPcoSPOTuk)
Date: 01/08/05 

Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2005 17:27:11 -0000

"Mike" <find@reply.to> wrote in message
news:34affvF48qa4lU2@individual.net...
> "Manky Badger" <spam@puritanDOTfreeserve.FULLSTOPcoSPOTuk> wrote:
>
>>An Hb of 17.5 in a newborn is to be expected.
>>An Hb of 17.5 in a fourteen year old girl is VERY abnormal and warrants
>>immediate urgent investigation.
>
> So what about mine then?
>
> I'm a 45 year old bloke and my Hb is 16, so what does that mean?

Whilst at first sight this would seem "in the normal range" for a male of
that age, you've made no mention of your medical history, clinical symptoms
& previous results.
If you are a chap with an Hb of 16g/dl who's Hb has previously consistently
run at 13g/dl, then alarm bells might ring.

You have Hb of 16g/dl - this result is pretty meaningless on its own.
There are perfectly healthy people and terminally ill people with an Hb of
16g/dl.

Presumably you're "ill" in the first place to warrant having a blood count ?
A "normal" blood test result doesn't rule out disease. You REALLY can't take
these numbers in isolation. Interpretation of a blood test is more than a
set of numbers - it involoves clinical assessment of the patient too.