Question

10. Significance of abnormal values of hemoglobin.

What are the normal values (=reference range) for your analyte? What could a high value indicate? (i.e. suggestive of diabetes, kidney failure, etc.) What could a low value indicate? analyte is hemoglobin.

Answer 1

ANSWER :- NORMAL VALUE OF HEMOGLOBIN

The hemoglobin level is expressed as the amount of hemoglobin in grams (gm) per deciliter (dL) of whole blood, a deciliter being 100 milliliters.

The normal ranges for hemoglobin depend on the age and, beginning in adolescence, the gender of the person. The normal ranges are:

• Newborns: 17 to 22 gm/dL
• One (1) week of age: 15 to 20 gm/dL
• One (1) month of age: 11 to 15 gm/dL
• Children: 11 to 13 gm/dL
• Adult males: 14 to 18 gm/dL
• Adult women: 12 to 16 gm/dL
• Men after middle age: 12.4 to 14.9 gm/dL
• Women after middle age: 11.7 to 13.8 gm/dL

All of these values may vary slightly between laboratories. Some laboratories do not differentiate between adult and "after middle age" hemoglobin values. Pregnant females are advised to avoid both high and low hemoglobin levels to avoid increasing risks of stillbirths (high hemoglobin – above the normal range) and premature birth or low-birth-weight baby (low hemoglobin – below the normal range).

A low hemoglobin level is referred to as anemia or low red blood count. A lower than normal number of red blood cells is referred to as anemia and hemoglobin levels reflect this number. There are many reasons (causes) for anemia.

Some of the more common causes of anemia are:

• loss of blood (traumatic injury, surgery, bleeding, colon cancer, or stomach ulcer),
• nutritional deficiency (iron, vitamin B12, folate),
• bone marrow problems (replacement of bone marrow by cancer),
• suppression by red blood cell synthesis bychemotherapy drugs,
• kidney failure, and
• abnormal hemoglobin structure (sickle cell anemia or thalassemia).

Higher than normal hemoglobin levels can be seen in people living at high altitudes and in people who smoke. Dehydration produces a falsely high hemoglobin measurement that disappears when proper fluid balance is restored.

Some other infrequent causes are high hemoglobin levels are:

• advanced lung disease (for example, emphysema);
• certain tumors;
• a disorder of the bone marrow known as polycythemia rubra vera, and;
• abuse of the drug erythropoietin (Epogen) by athletes for blood doping purposes (increasing the amount of oxygen available to the body by chemically raising the production of red blood cells).