Description
A bench reference for the results that arrive at 2 a.m.
In international practice the laboratory report often lands before any specialist opinion is available. A sodium of 118, a rising lactate, a borderline high-sensitivity troponin or an unexpected platelet count has to be acted on by the clinician who is on duty. Laboratory Medicine Decoded: Interpretation of Lab Values from Basic to Advanced is written for exactly that moment.
How the reference is organised
The International Edition runs to 2,370 pages: 105 chapters grouped into 17 parts, with Appendices A–H. The first part sets out the principles every result depends on — decision limits versus reference intervals, pre-analytical error, interference, biological variation and serial change, and how values shift from the neonate to the very old. The organ-system parts that follow take each test from what it measures to what it means for management: blood counts and the smear, coagulation and anticoagulant levels, sodium, potassium and acid–base, renal and urine tests, liver and pancreatic panels, cardiac biomarkers and lipids, endocrine axes, microbiology and molecular testing, autoantibodies, CSF and serous fluids, tumour markers, toxicology, drug monitoring and transfusion.
Separate chapters translate the same results into the context of obstetrics, paediatrics, geriatrics, neurology, psychiatry, pulmonology, surgery and anaesthesia, transplantation and sports medicine, then close with genetics, pharmacogenomics, standard profiles, pattern recognition, spurious results and critical-value handling.
Designed for working clinicians
Results are quoted in SI units first with conventional units alongside, so the book can be used in any country. Caution boxes flag the errors that most often mislead, Clinical Pearls give practical shortcuts, and Case Vignettes show reasoning from result to decision. One hundred integrated cases in Chapter 104 and five questions at the end of every chapter make it equally useful for CPD and recertification.
Author
Dr. A M Thirugnanam, MD, MSICP, FSCAI, Ph.D., Senior Interventional Cardiologist, Hyderabad — with particular depth on troponin pathways, natriuretic peptides, antithrombotic monitoring, contrast nephropathy and cardio-oncology surveillance.
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