Someone Had Inquired About Lab Values & Interpretation: here they are.

user11 · June 15, 2006, 5:29pm

A while back I read a post by someone who wanted to know about rheumatic panels and ANA, CRP and blood work and what they are & what they mean. I just can't find that thread! But here are some regular rheumatic labs and there signifigance:

RAGirl · June 15, 2006, 5:40pm

I'm not the person who inquired about this but thanks for posting. Good info :)

yalinda · June 15, 2006, 6:03pm

erin, this is a copy of my may post?.......i just went back and copied it for u but like i said on the other post i am cing my pcp this pm....night night ...again ~*yalinda

no rush on this it is a holiday weekend and you enjoy it the best you can,do not do research on my stuff i would feel like a crumb if you did

i got a copy of all my blood work and am going to go through it online a try to understand some stuff i am posting fyi but do not do anything more this holiday weekend that is not my intent please rest and enjoy it. this post will stay til next week and then if u have info to share and feel up to it by all means share.

here is the following out of limit results
wbc high
hgb low
mchc low
#gran high
%lymph low
segs high
lymohs low
bun high
k low
co2 high
alt low

i do not have a clue what any of this is but i will look online now and tryto figure out myself. please just wait til tuesday to follow up i am not dying and it can wait if u need to research anything.

thanks for your concerns and i hope you feel better soon..... enjoy your weekend please thanks linda

user11 · June 15, 2006, 6:22pm

a hah! will get to! thanks...i knew i wasn't imagining it. believe it or not....this does make sense on how say for instance the granulocytes are high...the lymphocytes low, it works like that with certain immune responses.
will interpret no prob! :)

Active, Severe Rheumatory Arthritis. Crohns. AS. Chiari Malformation & Right Brain venous anomoly. Partial complex seizures. Emphysema. Rheumatic Lung & Heart. MVP and Tricuspid prolapse. Had Lymes disease for 10 years.

user11 · June 16, 2006, 1:11am

Here we go!

elevated WBCs: of course, these are the dudes that fight infection. (aka leukocytes) normal range is 4.5 to 10.5; so elevation could mean you have a new infection, tissue injury, also all of the Autoimmune disorders initially may show an elevated WBC count.
elevated Segs: another part of the leukocyte count. normal ranges 50 to 62; increases can detect inflammation, RA, vasculitis, gout, metabolic disorders like diabetes.
Lymphs % low: normal ranges 25 to 40; if it decreases it can detect steroid use, chemotherapy induces this, anemia, immune disorders.
decreased Hemoglobin: this guy carries the good stuff. Oxygen and CO2. normal ranges for women is 12 to 16; decreased Hb can mean iron deficiency anemia,thalassemia, SLE, reactions to medicines. this also looks at the chances of anemia or the severity of it.
low MCHC: Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin. normals range 26 to 34; if it's low it could detect anemia. MCHC is used mostly to determine an anemia called microcytic anemia.
elevated BUN: (blood uria nitrogen) this thing tells us how our renal system is doing. it's an enzyme! normal ranges 6 to 20; an increase could detect stress, dehydration, congestive heart failure, they use it to look at heart attacks, UTI's, urinary obstructions, steroid use, diabetes & excess protein intake (the BIG HOOHA about the whole ATKINS thing being dangerous ).
decreased Potassium (K+): the favorite electrolyte of the bod! it's the primary cation for nerve conduction, muscle function & acid base balances! normals are 3.5 to 5.2 (you see there's not too much leeway...that's for a good reason because potassium is important!) hypokalemia is a very low K+ reading. this could mean EKG changes, vomiting, diarrhea, sweating, starvation & diuretic overuse. major thingis to keep an eyeball on heart function on this one.
low Alt: Alanine Aminotransferase. it's another enzyme concentrating in the liver. mainly used for medicine tolerance. normals for women range 7 to 35; you really don't wanna worry about low ALT. the high is what you worry about. low Alt can come from NSAIDs, salicylates and meds.
CO2 elevated: this might be a fluke. depending on how long the blood sits. emphysema, COPD can cause elevations.

So as you see, nothing is exactly conclusive & direct. I hope this is at least useful for the most part. As you see, I like labs! I think they're cool. And they're fun to analize.

Anything else just let me know.

Take care,

Erin

Active, Severe Rheumatory Arthritis. Crohns. AS. Chiari Malformation & Right Brain venous anomoly. Partial complex seizures. Emphysema. Rheumatic Lung & Heart. MVP and Tricuspid prolapse. Had Lymes disease for 10 years.

yalinda · June 16, 2006, 1:40am

thank you so very very much!!!! *~yalinda

elcamino · June 17, 2006, 1:34am

Hey Yalinda, I don't know much about methotrexate, but they did not want to put my mother on that drug (she had mctd) because she had developed interstitial lung disease. Methotrexate can be very very hard on your lungs. Perhaps that's why your doctor wants you to have a second opinion for the spots on your lungs. Maybe MTX could make them worse? In any case, second opinions never hurt.

Elcamino

Current dx: Rheumatoid Arthritis

Suspected dx: Early Lupus/MCTD

Current Meds: Enbrel, Plaquenil, Aciphex, Ultracet, Zyrtec, Allavert-D, Zantac, Tylenol PM

Past Meds: Relafen, Vioxx, Mobic, Voltaren, Sulfasalazine, Entocort, Prednisone, Humira, Reglan