Patients' Perspectives

Sample Reference Ranges for Blood Tests 
This document is NOT intended to provide you with medical advice.  You should consult qualified practitioners in your area for such information.
The information contained in the tables below gives the normal ranges for these particular blood tests at one laboratory.  Every laboratory must calibrate the equipment it uses so the ranges at the particular laboratory where your blood tests are performed are likely to be a little different from the ranges in this table.  Even the references we list below have different ranges.  We provide this information to help educate patients about the usefulness of these tests.  You should consult with the appropriate practitioners at the medical center where you are treated for accurate reference ranges to interpret your own tests.

To learn more about how your blood cells work, you might want to read:

Golde, David W.  The stem cell (creates key components of the human blood cell and immune systems).  Scientific American. 265:6 (December) 86-94.

To learn more about the various ways your blood is affected by chemotherapy, you might want to read:

McGarvey-Philippi, Kathleen, R.N. " The ABC's of WBC's and Other Blood Counts During Chemotherapy". Online at the Sapient Health Network (Free registration required to access this article).

To read more about diagnostic tests in general, our physicians and nurses have suggested:

Cox, Harold C., Jr. ed. (1990) Common diagnostic tests : use and interpretation. Philadelphia: American College of Physicians. ISBN:  0943126037. Paperback. Price not available.

Fischbach, Frances Talaska ed. (1998) A manual of laboratory and diagnostic tests. Philadelphia: Lippincott. ISBN:  039755186X. Paperback. $31.95 (list price)
 


CBC with Platelets and 5-part Differential
 
Test
Units
Low
range
High
range
White blood cell count
x10**3 or x10E3
4.5
10.0
Red blood cell count
x10**6 or x10E6
4.2
5.5
Hemoglobin (men)
grams/deciliter
12.0
16.0
Hemoglobin (women)
grams/deciliter
Hematocrit
per cent
37.0
47.0
Mean corpuscular volume
femtoliter
80
101
Mean corpuscular hemoglobin
picogram
27.0
34.0
MCH concentration
g/dL
31.5
36.0
Red cell distribution width
per cent
11.5
14.5
Platelet count
x10**3/cm or x10E3/cm
140
440
Mean platelet volume
fL
7.4
10.4
Neutrophil percent
per cent
39.0
85.0
Lymphocyte percent
per cent
19.5
50.0
Monocyte percent
per cent
2.5
8.0
Eosinophil percent
per cent
0.0
6.0
Basophil percent
per cent
0.0
3.0
Total neutrophil count
x10**3/cm or x10E3/cm
1.8
8.5
Total lymphocyte count
x10**3/cm or x10E3/cm
0.9
5.0
Total monocyte count
x10**3/cm or x10E3/cm
0.1
0.8
Total eosinophil count
x10**3/cm or x10E3/cm
0.0
0.6
Total basophil count
x10**3/cm or x10E3/cm
0.0
0.3
 
Chemistry panel (comprehensive metabolic panel)
 
Test
Units
Low
range
High
range
Sodium
mmol/liter
136
146
Potassium
mmol/liter
3.6
5.0
Chloride
mmol/liter
97
110
Glucose
milligrams/deciliter
65
110
Creatinine
milligrams/deciliter
0.5
1.2
Urea nitrogen
milligrams/deciliter
8
20
Total protein
grams/deciliter
6.0
8.0
Albumin
grams/deciliter
3.7
4.8
Bilirubin, total
milligrams/deciliter
0.3
1.2
Alkaline phosphatase
units per liter
35
110
AST (SGOT)
units per liter
5
40
Calcium
milligrams/deciliter
8.4
10.0
Other blood chemistry tests
 
Test
Units
Low
range
High 
range
ALT (SGPT)
units per liter
5
50
Cholesterol
milligrams/deciliter
0
240
CO2 content
mmol/liter
25
32
Glycosylated hemoglobin
per cent of total hemoglobin
5.2
7.3
LD
units per liter
110
*  220
Phosphorus
milligrams/deciliter
2.6
4.2
*  Value varies greatly from lab to lab

Tumor markers most frequently used for patients with breast cancer
 

Test
Units
Reference
CEA (carcinoembryonic antigen)
nanograms/milliliter
Non-smoker less than 3
CA 27.29 (similar to CA 15-3)
units per liter
Less than 38
Information about notation used in this table

x10**3 and  x10E3 are two different ways to indicatethe data values being reported are in thousands.
x10**6 and  x10E6 are two different ways to indicate the data values being reported are in hundreds of thousands.

Some of other units of measure are not familiar to several of us, so for the ones we didn't know, here they are, thanks to one of our primary care physicians:

deciliter = 1/10th of a liter
femtoliter = 1/1000ths of a microliter
milligram = 1/1000th of a gram
nanogram =
picogram = 1/100th of a microgram
micromol = 1/1000th of a mol (Remember the mol without an "e" from high school chemistry?)

Finally, because most people in the United States are not familiar with metric measures, the following list shows equivalents:

quart = approximately 1 liter
pound = approximately 453 grams
mile = approximately 1600 meters


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None of the essays entitled Patients' Perspectives is intended to provide medical, legal, or psycho-social advice. For those kinds of information, you should contact qualified practictioners in your local area. We do intend to convey our members' experiences with the various procedures involved in cancer treatment from the perspective of the patient to help educate patients and their caregivers. 
Copyright 2005 You Are Not Alone
Most recent update: 04 Oct 2005 22:07
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