Understanding Bloodwork Levels

[Shalom33]

Hello sisters and brothers!

I have noticed some bloodwork component posts that show for example, lymphocytes at 16000.

We are in Canada and our tests show the reading as: 131.12 10^9/L (H).

I know the (H) means high and I know that the 131 down from 299 is good, but I’m wondering how the number compares to the reading “style” noted above? Like is there a decimal, 16000i would be 160 if the same as our reading, or using a different volume of blood etc?

Thank you. May each of your days be blessed with love and hugs and wellness.

Christine

[lankisterguy Volunteer]

Hi Christine/Shalom,

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When you see the 131.12 10^9/L that is call scientific notation and it means if you wrote the number out it would have 9 zeros or decimal places after the 131. And the "/L" means that is the number of cells in one Liter of blood.

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The measurement you see with 160000. is likely followed by "/mL" which is the number of cells in a milli-Liter of blood which is 1,000 times smaller than the above 131 number, so the count has 3 fewer zeros or decimal places.

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Most of the time people drop all the extra zeros and refer to those numbers as 131 or 160 and occasionally add a "k" to mean thousands of cells in a milliliter.

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It's confusing, and each medical system has different styles that their doctors and staff have become accustomed to. But there are slight adjustments to make when they try to compare with another hospital or lab.

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Len

[Shalom33 in reply to lankisterguy]

Thank you!!!