Labs and Diagnostics

Low albumin is a clue, not a diagnosis. Because albumin has a 21-day half-life, one low reading reflects weeks — not a bad day. See what drives it.

High potassium on a blood test isn't always dangerous — and sometimes it isn't even real. Learn to tell a true result from a false one, and when it's urgent.

High creatinine is often a false alarm—creatine, protein, or dehydration can raise it without harming your kidneys. Here's how to tell benign from serious.

High ALT flags liver-cell stress, but how high matters. Here's the graded scale from borderline to massive, what usually causes it, and when it's urgent.

Reading a comprehensive metabolic panel: doctors read all 14 numbers as a pattern, and 1 in 20 healthy people fall outside a normal range by design.

Your comprehensive metabolic panel normal range spans 14 values, each with its own numbers. See the full chart and what one out-of-range result means.

Total protein and calcium ride on albumin, which binds 40–45% of it. In 22,658 patients, the standard correction was right only 58.7% of the time.

High glucose on a CMP can also read falsely low — glucose falls 5–7% per hour in an unseparated tube. Here's what your number really tells you.

CMP electrolytes hide a quiet problem: a potassium of 3.6 is low by MedlinePlus and normal by another widely used reference. Only your lab's range counts.

Liver markers on a CMP are read together, never alone. Clinicians classify liver injury by comparing ALT against ALP — and the ratio changes the answer.

Your CMP checks kidney function with three markers, and BUN alone can rise from simple dehydration. Here is how the three are read together.