What Your Lab Report Actually Says: Blood Tests Explained for Non-Doctors

Your CBC report comes back with a wall of abbreviations and arrows. Here is what the common ones mean, what the normal ranges roughly are, and why you should not diagnose yourself.

Every Nepali lab report ends up in one of two places: a doctor's hands, or a confused WhatsApp forward sent to someone who "knows about this stuff." If yours sits in the second pile for even an evening, you will likely see the CBC — Complete Blood Count — which is the single most common test in the country. This guide translates the layout so you can follow your doctor's explanation instead of zoning out at the abbreviations.

First: what a CBC actually measures

A CBC is a census of your blood. It counts the three main families of cells and the details around them:

• Red blood cells (RBC, Hgb/Hb, HCT/PCV) — the oxygen carriers. The headline numbers are hemoglobin (how much oxygen-carrying protein is in your blood) and hematocrit (what fraction of your blood is red cells).
• White blood cells (WBC, plus the differential: N/L/M/E/B) — the immune army. Total WBC plus the subtypes (neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, eosinophils, basophils) tell a doctor whether the body looks like it is fighting an infection and what kind.
• Platelets (PLT) — the clotting cells. Too few and you bruise easily; too many can raise clotting risk.

Those two numbers that always come with ranges — MCV and MCH — describe the size of the red cells and their hemoglobin content, which is how doctors tell apart different kinds of anemia.

Very rough normal ranges (adults)

Labs print their own reference ranges and they vary slightly by machine and altitude — Nepal's high districts run a little differently for red cell counts, which is normal. As a rough orientation only:

• Hemoglobin: around 13–17 g/dL (men), 12–15.5 g/dL (women)
• WBC: roughly 4,000–11,000 per microliter
• Platelets: roughly 150,000–400,000 per microliter

A single number outside "normal" is almost never a diagnosis on its own. A slightly high WBC can be yesterday's infection, stress, or even just how your lab counted the sample. A doctor reads the pattern, not the row.

Common additions on Nepali reports

• Fasting blood sugar / blood glucose — measures sugar in the blood, usually after 8–12 hours of fasting. Roughly 70–100 mg/dL is the usual fasting ballpark; repeated higher values are what a doctor investigates for diabetes.
• Lipid profile (cholesterol "TC," triglycerides "TG," HDL, LDL) — the fat numbers. High total cholesterol or LDL ("bad") and low HDL ("good") are flags that matter over years, not days.
• Liver enzymes (ALT/SGPT, AST/SGOT) — leak markers that rise when liver cells are irritated. Very common flushes here after alcohol, fatty meals, or certain medicines — usually transient.
• Kidney numbers (urea/BUN, creatinine) — waste-clearance markers. Elevated creatinine or urea makes a doctor look at kidneys and dehydration.
• Thyroid (TSH, T3, T4) — the metabolism regulator. TSH is the usual first screen.
• Urine routine microscopy (R/M/E) — a practical look for infection, blood, or protein in the urine.

Two warnings before you panic: first, almost every single lab will flag out-of-range values with a little arrow, and most people have at least one on a normal day — it is not an emergency. Second, values from different labs can't always be compared; the range printed by your own lab is your reference. Never change or start medicine based on a report read by a relative.

Common mistakes people make

• Diagnosing from Google. Low WBC plus a fever is a list of ten terrible things online and one boring thing in real life. Your doctor has your full picture; Google has only this one row.
• Fasting by "just not eating much." For a fasting test, eat normally the night before, then nothing except water for 8–12 hours. "I only had one samosa" usually wrecks the point of the test.
• Repeating the same test at a different lab to "confirm." If the first result is alarming, the right step is usually telling your doctor, not automatically re-doing it elsewhere with a different machine.
• Sharing reports that contain identifying information. Lab reports carry your name and NHIP/PID details — blur them before any WhatsApp forward.

What to do with a report you do not understand

1. Take the whole report to the doctor who ordered it — the person who asked for the test knows why you are looking at these numbers.
2. Ask three questions: Is anything concerning? Does this change what we do? When should I repeat it?
3. If nothing was ordered and you tested yourself, that is exactly the time to see a doctor with the report — not to ask the internet what to buy.

Your lab report is a tool for a discussion, not a verdict. Walk in able to read it, and you will get far more out of the five minutes with your doctor.