Rapid weight loss moves eight analytes for reasons that have nothing to do with the drug
Three different explanations for the same abnormal number, and how to tell them apart.
Bloodwork
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Vitamin D, adiposity, and a volume-of-distribution problem
Which markers are informative, which are confounded, and which move for reasons unrelated to nutrition.
Which results should be repeated before they are investigated
Timing is the whole of the post-cessation panel: draw it too early and it measures the treatment period.
The out-of-range flag is a statistical convention with a printer attached
A twelve-analyte panel in a perfectly healthy person has roughly even odds of producing at least one flagged result.
Which results should be repeated before they are investigated
What the pivotal programmes measured and how often, which is a more defensible template than most published monitoring schedules.
What the upper limit of normal for ALT should be, and why it is not
The reference interval for alanine aminotransferase in most laboratories is derived from a population that included people with undiagnosed fatty liver.
Vitamin D, adiposity, and a volume-of-distribution problem
Reduced intake is a plausible mechanism for deficiency. Reduced absorption is not, and the two are conflated in most of the advice.
Which results are findings and which are consequences of the weight loss
Three different explanations for the same abnormal number, and how to tell them apart.
Why your laboratory interval differs from the one in the textbook
Two sources of noise sit under every number: how reproducible the assay is, and how much the analyte varies within the same person on the same day.
Why your laboratory interval differs from the one in the textbook
A flag is a probability statement about a population. It is not a statement about the person holding the printout.
Rapid weight loss moves eight analytes for reasons that have nothing to do with the drug
Three different explanations for the same abnormal number, and how to tell them apart.
The out-of-range flag is a statistical convention with a printer attached
A flag is a probability statement about a population. It is not a statement about the person holding the printout.
The out-of-range flag is a statistical convention with a printer attached
A flag is a probability statement about a population. It is not a statement about the person holding the printout.
What the trials monitored, and what that implies about routine practice
Timing is the whole of the post-cessation panel: draw it too early and it measures the treatment period.
Which results are findings and which are consequences of the weight loss
The panel drawn during a week of vomiting is measuring the vomiting.
The reference change value: the number that tells you whether a delta is real
Almost every misreading of a laboratory panel is a misunderstanding of what a reference interval is and how much a result has to move before the movement means anything.
The out-of-range flag is a statistical convention with a printer attached
The arithmetic of the reference change value, worked for the analytes that matter here.
Which results are findings and which are consequences of the weight loss
Three different explanations for the same abnormal number, and how to tell them apart.
Rapid weight loss moves eight analytes for reasons that have nothing to do with the drug
Three different explanations for the same abnormal number, and how to tell them apart.
Which results are findings and which are consequences of the weight loss
Three different explanations for the same abnormal number, and how to tell them apart.