[USMA:35374] Re: blood tests

[CredoinIesum]

What your describing is typical. I'm actually in a programme to work in a medical lab and do those test right now.  Unfortunately the professors that teach students to work in the lab see no problem with MCG, mcg, grm, mcgrm and so forth.  I've explained to them what the correct symbol is and that MCG is never acceptable.  One of the instructors agrees that she should do it the way I say even though she doesn't. The other professor all simply say that in the 'real world' you don't do it the way I say you do.   One of the classes includes a 'crash course in metric' to make sure the students know 'metrics', as they call it.  This class incorrectly teaches metric.  The work sheets included converting between units.  An example of the work sheet is:   1ML = ______ MCL 100ML=______L   Everything on the sheet was upper case and incorrect symbols.  I told the instructor and she thought I was being 'too picky'.  Well, I did the worksheet and turned it in by doing the best I could and noting to the side the problems that I couldn't do since the symbol didn't make sense.  I told her that 100 ML is a 100 megalitres and that I would answer the questions as such.  I didn't get 'points taken off' for doing so but the instructors think I'm a 'butt' for trying to convince them to follow SI correctly.   This DOES cause problems.  For example, we had a day where us students had to give an oral report in front of the class.  More than one student wrote things like 'A erythrocyte is about 7 mm across in their presentation' meaning 7 micrometres.  One of the students actually typed into her Power point slide show that a particular bacilli was 80 mm in diameter instead of what I assume she meant to be 80 nm.  The student actually even orally said to the class that the diameter was 80 mm.  I blame that sort of error as being the fault of the US not using metric in daily life.  The scary thing is that in about a month this women will be working in a medical lab doing test for patients.  It scares me to think of how ignorant of metric measures the people are that are going into the lab.   The list of small SI errors the instructors make, and are regularly made in the hospital lab, are many.  One instructor swears that a cubic centimetre is a different size than a millilitre, but that they are 'close enough' to say they are the same most of the time.   The word micrometre is almost never used.  The instructors (who currently work in hospital labs) call them micra, microns and abbreviate it mcm or just use 'mu'  but NEVER use the correct SI symbol.  I've actually been told not to use the correct symbol because they claim it causes confusion!  CC is the normal way they say and write cubic centimetre, occasionally they will write cu cm; once again they refuse to change that because it's how its 'always been done'.   This problem is larger than just the medical lab.  I picked up some medication from a pharmacy that came with a dropper that claimed to be calibrated to dispense 1 ML; I showed it to the pharmacist and told him I don't think it can hold a megalitre. The pharmacist didn't even realize that ML is the symbol for a megalitre and not the same as mL.   Richard   In a message dated 2005-12-10 14:52:12 Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I had my annual physical last Monday, and received the blood test lab printouts yesterday. It won't surprise anyone that they are all in metric: g/dL, mg/dL, etc. Unfortunately, the entire document is printed in upper-case text. So the symbols really show up as: MG/DL MMOL/L G/DL The other problem is they list microliter as MCL. I don't know if this is standard in the medical industry or just this particular testing lab. It is unfortunate, in any case. The company that did the testing is Quest Diagnostics. They say on thier web site: "Quest Diagnostics is America's leading provider of diagnostic testing services, performing laboratory tests for more than 500,000 patients each day." Jim