I need help with a lab question

[caringtolearn]

I am a lvn student and I have a question about labs that I can not find an answer to and when I asked my instructor she couldn't be bothered with it. My question is this, I know h&h stand for hemoglobin and hematocrit and they are run as two seperate labs but alway run together, I always see the values as hgn then the value, and the same with hct, yet people will say the pts h&h was #, are they combing the values to get an overall h&h value? I don't see on any lab reports h&h___ they are always printed as two seperate values. I don't want to look stupid by saying the hemoglobin was ___ and the hematocrit is____ when they can be stated as h&h was ________. I asked a friend who is a nurse and she said she had never heard of anyone saying it as h&h_____ that it is always two seperate values. So if anyone can help me with this I will be grateful.

[Double-Helix, BSN, RN]

I agree with your friend. There is no single number for H&H, it's always two numbers. Although, I think the term H&H may be used in regard to the hemoglobin, as that is usually the more important value when deciding if a patient needs blood products. So you might hear someone say that the H&H is 7.5 when they really mean the hemoglobin is 7.5. You might also hear "The H&H is 12.7 and 45." Or just 12.7, 45. If they say the two values together it can seem like one number, even though they are really saying both.

Don't over think it. Just say the hemoglobin is ___ and the hematocrit is _____. No one will think you sound stupid.

[ckh23, BSN, RN]

They are two different values and are not combined. They are a measurement of two different things. The hemoglobin is X and the Hematocrit is Y.

Hemoglobin and Hematocrit - Clinical Methods - NCBI Bookshelf

[Unknown member]

I think you first need to understand what these lab values mean. Do you know what they measure and how they are calculated? I think if you did it'd make more sense.

The hemoglobin is measured in g/dL and the hematocrit is a % so therefore, you cannot just add them together.

[caringtolearn]

Thank you all for taking the time to read and answer my question, I value your time and experience. You have cleared it up a bit for me, I can see what you mean Ashley about the hemoglobin being the most important and the staff referring to it as h&h__.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

one more concept to take away about h&h is this: think about how oxygen gets delivered to the cells. you have to have a decent hematocrit (the % of your blood that is red cells) and a decent hemoglobin. if you think about it, the amount of oxygen carried in blood with a hematocrit of 30 is double the amount of blood carried by blood with a hematocrit of 15, even if they both have oxygen saturations (that's the percentage of hemoglobin that is carrying oxygen at a given time) that are the same. lots of people see, "sat of 90%, that's fine" but if the person has a low crit or hemoglobin, maybe it's not really enough oxygen in there.

neat, huh?

[guest042302019, BSN, RN]

I don't know if I would think Hgb is the "most" important. They really go hand in hand. Each is a puzzle piece of the lab value picure. Lame metaphor. Good luck. :)