On Tuesday, March 21, 2017, there will be two changes to critical or clinically significant values for laboratory tests.

(1) The whole blood lactate critical value will now be > 5 mEq/L across all ages. Previously, this was not a critical value for children less than 16 years old outside of the newborn nursery or neonatal intensive care unit.

This change applies to the following two tests:

• LACTIC ACID, WHOLE BLOOD (CRITICAL CARE LABORATORY) [LAB95]
• LACTIC ACID – PICU [LAB8219]

(2) There will also be a change to designate a TROPONIN T [LAB139] that is > 0.10 ng/mL in the outpatient setting (excluding the Emergency Treatment Center) as a clinically significant value to generate a phone call to the ordering provider.

Further information on the Department of Pathology Critical Laboratory Tests & Values is available in the Laboratory Services Handbook.

Questions should be directed to Matthew Krasowski, MD, PhD, medical director of the Clinical Chemistry Laboratory (384-9380, matthew-krasowski@uiowa.edu).