I've seen posts on here before with normal values and conversions between SI and U.S. values but many of the links are now dead or the tables were very confusing.
This link is to a very simple table created by the Council for Continuing Pharmaceutical Education based in Canada which has values in both SI (Canada/U.K.) and U.S. units. WBC and lymphocyte values are on page 5.
Cells counts (like WBC and ALC) in SI units (Canada/UK) are usually 10**9/L whereas U.S. uses 10**3/uL = 10**3/mm**3 which is why U.S. numbers are 1,000x larger.
I hope others find this useful.
Written by
bhayes84
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Thanks bhayes 84. I find that if I multiply some Canadian test results by 10, 100 and others by 1000 I usually get something that seems right. FOr ex. my ALC was 14.90 That sounds like 1490 in US terms. My PLT are 85 My RBC is 4.50 etc.
It depends on the testing laboratory, with some in the US following the standards used elsewhere (but it can vary with the blood cell type measured - depending on the testing equipment and how it is calibrated). With blood counts, it depends on the reference volume, so you do get factors of 10 variations. With serum levels, there can be a number of different ways of assessing the concentration (grams, moles etc), so you get unusual factors. Where there is any question, it is worth stating the normal range as the units can be challenging to reproduce online.
At least the US is metric and not measuring in cubic micro-inches or some such...
LOL (Did that in the 1960s when the Drexel University Engineering Professors said test answers could be in any measurement system. We were trained in the Metric system - because the US was "going to convert to the metric system" in those days. In the past I had the conversions memorized, but would need to look them up now).
Most countries use the International System of Units (SI). In contrast, the humorous furlong/firkin/fortnight system of units of measurement draws attention by being extremely old fashioned, and off-beat at the same time.
One furlong per fortnight is very nearly 1 centimetre per minute (to within 1 part in 400).
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