This is in response to Sheri Porter's post on 2014-10-22, which I just found out about.
I would like the American medical profession to adopt the metric system, and proper use thereof, as soon as possible. Two examples: When I visit the doctor, she measures my mass and temperature, among other things. This should be done in kilograms and degrees Celsius, which are the units I use at home and the units used all over the world. Measuring mass in kilograms and height in meters would facilitate the calculation of BMI, which is, and has always been, metric. I recently had my hormones measured. Free testosterone was quoted in picograms per milliliter, while total testosterone was quoted in nanograms per deciliter. Using different prefixes in both numerator and denominator makes them difficult to compare and constitutes abuse of the metric system. Proper style is to use a prefix in the denominator only if the resulting denominator is equivalent to a coherent unit (in particular, kilograms are used in denominators). Thus both figures should be quoted in nanograms per liter or, equivalently, in micrograms per kiloliter (since 1 kL=1m³). The common medical use of the deciliter in the denominator should be deprecated. Pierre Abbat -- .i toljundi do .ibabo mi'afra tu'a do .ibabo damba do .ibabo do jinga .icu'u la ma'atman.
