![]() ![]() “It depends on the person, the symptoms, and the other conditions that are present,” she says. In our BUN example, a number just above the normal range might actually be a sign of a bleeding ulcer in the stomach or small intestine, not failing kidneys. Salamon emphasizes the need to look at someone’s entire picture of health to interpret a blood test. Minor fluctuations in test results may also reflect: recent infections, medication side effects, stress, gender, age and inaccurate lab procedures. “It’s common for BUN to go up if you don’t drink enough, and that can happen when someone is fasting before having blood drawn.” “If I see that it’s borderline high, I might ignore it,” says Salamon. So, what does it mean if your BUN level is at the very high end of the normal range? Excess urea is removed from the blood by the kidneys, so high levels of BUN in the blood can indicate that kidney function is declining. Take, for example, a routine measure of blood urea nitrogen (BUN), a waste product created as your body breaks down the protein in your diet. And many people are consistently on one side or the other of the normal range, and for them, that’s healthy.” “Blood test results can vary a little bit, depending on the lab. “Don’t jump to conclusions,” warns Salamon. If your result is a 9.1 mg/dL, right in the middle, you can feel confident that your calcium level is normal.īut what if a blood test result is at the very low or high end of normal, or even slightly outside the normal range? Is that a For example, if your routine blood work includes a test for calcium in the blood, your lab may list the normal range for calcium as 8.3 to 9.9 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL). When you look at a printout of your lab results, you’ll find the normal ranges for each blood test next to your personal results. In others, it might indicate an important change in health that we need to follow or act on,” says geriatrician Suzanne Salamon, M.D., assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.Ībout Normal Ranges And Interpreting The Numbers “It’s tricky, because in some tests, a borderline result makes no difference. ![]()
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