[Discussion] can we stop arguing about baseline labs until somebody posts a number
Genuine question, and the title is the question: can we stop arguing about baseline labs until somebody posts a number. Time of day, fasting state, hydration and recent exercise all move common markers. Standardising the draw conditions is free and it removes most of the apparent variability. ApoB counts atherogenic…
This. Reference ranges are population intervals, not targets, and conflating them causes a lot of unnecessary alarm here.
Push back: a value just outside a reference interval is a common finding in healthy people. It is a reason to repeat.
Push back: a value just outside a reference interval is a common finding in healthy people.
Disagreeing with this bit: that change is confounded by the weight loss itself and cannot be attributed.
Do you have a baseline from before you started?
Right, and weight loss itself moves several markers, so attribution is harder than these threads assume.
Agreed. The trend is the signal. A single value is a snapshot of one morning.
Agreed.
Adding the obvious one — take it to whoever ordered the panel. This board cannot read it for you.
Disagree with reading anything into that. One value, one morning, and you changed two other things in the same window.
Draw at the same point in the week now, fasting, same lab. The noise dropped enormously once I standardised.
ask whether the lab changed its assay between your two draws
draw at the same point in the week if you want comparability