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ARTICLE |

Milligrams, Milliequivalents, or Units of Standard Deviation

Bruce S. Schoenberg, MD
JAMA. 1969;207(11):2105. doi:10.1001/jama.1969.03150240125030.
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ABSTRACT

To the Editor:—  Rushmer's suggestion to express laboratory results in terms of units of standard deviation from a common mean certainly has many advantages over the present system (206:836, 1968). Before applying this new system, however, one must categorize laboratory data into two broad classes:

  1. One in which the quantity represented by the abnormal laboratory result is a reflection or index of the disease process and is not directly contributing to the deterioration of the patient's condition.

  2. Another in which the abnormality of the quantity being mea-

sured is directly contributing to the death of the patient.
An example of the first class of test result would be an elevated lactic dehydrogenase activity in the blood following a myocardial infarction. Although the elevated enzyme activity reflects a disease state it is not of itself injurious to the patient. An example of the second class of data would

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