Interpret · Laboratory
Labs
Panels the way the chart shows them: computed flags you can hide, trends across days, and a committed answer before any interpretation appears. Reference intervals vary by laboratory; the reasoning does not.
Anemia workbench
Hb, MCV, reticulocytes, iron studies, hemolysis screen: the branching workup as cases.
Liver test patterns
Hepatocellular against cholestatic, and the R-ratio thinking between them.
Electrolytes & renal
Sodium, potassium, the climbing creatinine, and the trends that matter.
All laboratory cases
Fatigue and a low hemoglobin
introA 34-year-old presents with months of fatigue. She reports heavy menstrual periods. She takes no medications.
Anemia with a marrow that is trying
coreA 28-year-old develops fatigue and dark urine one week after starting a new medication. He looks mildly jaundiced.
Macrocytosis with a silent marrow
coreA 71-year-old vegetarian presents with fatigue and new numbness in both feet.
Liver enzymes in the thousands
coreA 24-year-old is brought in drowsy after an overdose taken 36 hours ago. She will not say what she took.
Itch, dark urine, pale stools
coreA 61-year-old presents with three weeks of itching, dark urine, and 5 kg of weight loss. He is visibly jaundiced.
Sodium 118 in a comfortable patient
coreA 68-year-old on a new antidepressant is referred with a sodium of 118 mmol/L. She is clinically euvolemic and mentating normally.
Weakness with a potassium of 7.1
coreA 58-year-old with diabetes on an ACE inhibitor presents with weakness. The laboratory phones a critical potassium of 7.1 mmol/L.
A creatinine that keeps climbing
coreA 74-year-old admitted with pneumonia is on day 4. You are reviewing the morning bloodwork before rounds.
Thirsty, breathing fast, glucose 32
coreA 19-year-old presents with two days of thirst, vomiting, and deep sighing respirations.
Three days of vomiting
coreA 45-year-old with three days of intractable vomiting from gastric outlet obstruction.
Fever, hypotension, and a lactate to follow
introA 66-year-old with pyelonephritis is resuscitated in the ED. You are following her numbers over six hours.
The lymphoma patient after the first cycle
advancedA 62-year-old with bulky high-grade lymphoma, thirty-six hours after starting chemotherapy, now oliguric with cramps and tingling.
Found on the floor
coreAn 79-year-old found after an estimated fourteen hours on the floor following a fall. Dark urine in the catheter bag.
Weight loss with a racing heart
coreA 34-year-old with three months of weight loss despite appetite, tremor, heat intolerance, and a resting pulse of 118.
Stones, bones, groans, and a phone call
coreA 58-year-old referred after a renal colic episode; 'calcium slightly up' on two occasions over a year. She feels vaguely tired and low.
The sodium of the patient who cannot reach the water
coreAn 88-year-old with advanced dementia, admitted from a care home after five days of poor intake during a heat wave. Drowsy, dry, and slow to answer.
Everything is low
coreA 66-year-old with six weeks of fatigue, gum bleeding when brushing, and two chest infections in a month.
Oozing from every line
advancedDay 2 of an E. coli bacteremia in ICU: the arterial line site oozes, venipuncture bruises spread, and the nurse reports blood in the ET tube secretions.
Hypotension with the wrong electrolytes
advancedA 47-year-old with fatigue and weight loss for months, now vomiting and dizzy after a flu-like illness. BP 84/52 despite two litres of saline. She is tanned, in November.
The phosphate that fell after breakfast
advancedA 34-year-old admitted severely malnourished after months of restrictive eating. Feeding started yesterday at full calculated calories. Today he is weak, breathless, and his ankles have begun to swell.