Thiamine and the vomiting patient
Reduced intake is a plausible mechanism for deficiency. Reduced absorption is not, and the two are conflated in most of the advice.
Pancreatitis
Page 2 of 3 of this archive, newest first.
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.
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.
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.
Falling ferritin is not always falling iron
Three different explanations for the same abnormal number, and how to tell them apart.
Micronutrient monitoring: which panel, how often, and on whose evidence
A monitoring schedule requires evidence about incidence. For this population, that evidence does not exist.
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.
The reference change value: the number that tells you whether a delta is real
A flag is a probability statement about a population. It is not a statement about the person holding the printout.
What the outcome trials measured in the kidney
Asymptomatic pancreatic enzyme elevation is common on treatment and is not pancreatitis. The distinction is clinical, not biochemical.
Thiamine and the vomiting patient
What the trials measured, which in the case of micronutrients is very little.
HbA1c and its lag: what a result three months old is telling you
A robust, cheap, standardised assay with a specific and well-catalogued set of failure modes, several of which are common in this population.
A reference interval is not a target, and a result outside one is not a diagnosis
The arithmetic of the reference change value, worked for the analytes that matter here.
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.
Which results are findings and which are consequences of the weight loss
The panel drawn during a week of vomiting is measuring the vomiting.
Which results are findings and which are consequences of the weight loss
The estimated glomerular filtration rate is calculated from creatinine, creatinine comes from muscle, and muscle mass is falling. The arithmetic is unforgiving.
Monitoring intervals, and the case against measuring too often
A panel that will not change a decision is a panel that generates work.
The glycated haemoglobin assay, and the eight conditions that break it
The alternatives with shorter windows, what they measure, and why they are rarely ordered.
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.