Blood reference ranges

Reference ranges for blood tests are sets of values used by a health professional to interpret a set of medical test results from blood samples.

Reference ranges for blood tests are studied within the field of clinical chemistry (also known as "clinical biochemistry", "chemical pathology" or "pure blood chemistry"), the area of pathology that is generally concerned with analysis of bodily fluids.

Blood test results should always be interpreted using the reference range provided by the laboratory that performed the test.

A reference range is usually defined as the set of values 95 percent of the normal population falls within (that is, 95% prediction interval). It is determined by collecting data from vast numbers of laboratory tests.

In this article, all values (except the ones listed below) denote blood plasma concentration, which is approximately 60–100% larger than the actual blood concentration if the amount inside red blood cells (RBCs) is negligible. The precise factor depends on as well as amount inside RBCs. Exceptions are mainly those values that denote total blood concentration, and in this article they are:

A few values are for inside red blood cells only:

If not otherwise specified, a reference range for a blood test is generally the venous range, as the standard process of obtaining a sample is by venipuncture. An exception is for acid-base and blood gases, which are generally given for arterial blood.

Still, the blood values are approximately equal between the arterial and venous sides for most substances, with the exception of acid-base, blood gases and drugs (used in therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) assays). Arterial levels for drugs are generally higher than venous levels because of extraction while passing through tissues.

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