Laboratories to Scrutinize

Isolated laboratory values should not be a driving force when it comes to diagnosing patients. There are many causes for most laboratory values to be abnormal, and the entire clinical picture, including history and physical examination, are important when caring for patients. If a provider has a high enough clinical suspicion for a certain diagnosis, then a normal laboratory value should not falsely reassure a provider. Prime examples are a normal lactate in a patient with mesenteric ischemia, or a normal white blood cell count in a patient with acute cholecystitis.