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by talaxandra Premium Member

Updated Nov 05, 2004 at 11:58 AM by talaxandra

So yesterday I was looking after this guy with rhabdo, who came in with a CK of 243,100 and I was wondering - what's the highest value you've seen? Not necessarily CK, any value.
An example, for example - I had a woman who had a glucose of 120.8mmol/L. I don't know how to translate that into the US scale, but the normal range is around 4 - 9 in a well-controlled diabetic.
Same patient, different admission - triglycerides 8.1 (0.0 - 2.0), cholesterol 22 (?<6). You could see fat globules in the tube when you took blood, and after about 20 minutes it would separate out and float above the serum.
Highest K+? 7.6mmol/L (renal patient)
Urea - 48.6, creatinine 1.18!!! (same patient, normal levels in June this year)
Highest BP 310/145 (stroke patient)
Do we have any other contenders?

[ERNurse752]

Blood alcohol 771 in a guy who was conscious and coherent. Only c/o abd pain. He's a frequent flier...drinks Listerine when he can't buy beer.

[KRVRN]

I've seen a Ca level of 17, a K of 8 and a triglycerides of over 1800... all in preemies. And going the other way, I've also seen a BP of 16/10 in a preemie.

[HappyNurse2005]

holy shnickity! 310/145 bp! wow. there was a guy today who had a BUN of 98, umm...saw someone iwth a low level, of platelets at 17,000.

love, rose

[Jamesdotter]

My mother developed ITP in her 70s. Her platelets had dropped to below 5,000 when they did her splenectomy. She did not have a spontaneous remission though ("60% of cases"), and her platelets remained below 100,000, even on steroids.

Many years ago we had an OB patient with a familial form of hyperlipemia. After this length of time, I can't remember which blood fats were involved, but I do remember that they were impossibly high and that we had her on hyperal for awhile because she couldn't tolerate oral feedings. She did have a healthy baby, and her lipid levels returned to her normal within a few weeks or months.

[GAgirl]

platelets at less than 2500.....chemo pt

[dianacs]

I had a patient with K+ of 9.3. Obviously she was very sick, but she was A&O. I forget what her telemetry showed. Eventually her levels came down.

[southern rn]

Hgb 3.0
Troponin 45

[ageless]

I have seen a potassium of 8.4, BUN of 160 and a creat of 11 in a dialysis pt.
I have also seen a cpk of over 300,000, (but over 100,000, the value is meaningless).

[rn29306]

low values

H/H of 1 and 4. Young post-hysterectomy patient bled out at home and in ED. Pt went to surgery but stroked out. Withdrew care on my shift.