Blood urea ammonia

Does a serum urea blood test measure ammonia

[chrisw740]

Not directly BUT normal urea suggests decent liver and kidney function. Your liver converts ammonia to urea which the kidneys then excrete.

Increased blood serum urea indicates poor renal function, and decreased serum urea can be due to poor liver function (and or protein deficiency/malnutrition)

The situation is more nuanced of course and there's no substitute for directly testing ammonia levels.... but your 5.1 is in the middle of most labs range for urea and is another example of your normal lab results.

[Hidden in reply to chrisw740]

Thanks for the reply

[Ubwa]

Direct amonia tests are only really done in hospitals and then in only in exceptional cases I believe as the sample needs to be tested within 30? minutes of being drawn. Dont quote me on that though, I just know it has a vary finite time to be tested

[Hidden in reply to Ubwa]

Thanks for the reply

[Oztrax]

Ubwa I believe you are correct with the 30 mins, which why the test is not done routinely