Samuel Nobilluci DO Jordan Miller DO Ari Leib MD Adena Regional Medical Center Case presentation A 88-year-old Caucasian female walks into the emergency department after her primary care physician told her she had an abnormal lab. She reports that she otherwise feels fine and denies visual changes, [...]
Almost immediately, emergency physicians know what to do with most abnormal lab results. If a patient’s hemoglobin is 4.5 g/dL, they need a transfusion. If their troponin is 12.3 ng/ml, they are having cardiac infarction. If their lactic acid is 7.5 mmol/L, something terrible is going on. What if the only abnormality they have on their blood work is bandemia? Does it matter if their bands are 6%, 15%, or 32%? Or, are they all treated equally?