noted above, when screening outpatients, a normal NTproBNP effectively rules out CHF. In this population, an elevated NTproBNP would dictate follow-up testing with more definitive (specific) tests for CHF. Probably not. Even though a normal value still rules out CHF very effectively, a mildly elevated value may well be unrelated to the acute episode.

Especially in premenopausal women, elevated CA-125 can mean any of several benign conditions, or a "false positive," or ovarian cancer or another type of cancer.

This question is more "wishful thinking" resulting from the mind trying to turn a positive test into what might want to be called "low positive" or even the equivalent of negative. However from our experience, a positive antigliadin antibody of any degree is like a positive pregnancy test. When a pregnancy test is positive, you are not a little pregnant, you are pregnant. The same is true for gluten sensitivity.

Of note, reference ranges vary with gender and age. On average, women have higher values than men, and values in both genders increase with age. On each CCC report, the reference range listed will be tailored for the patient's gender and age.

The NTproBNP assay has excellent precision. If we were to run the same sample once daily for many days, the variation in the results would be less than 10%. That is, a sample with a value of 1000 pg/mL would be measured as 900-1100 pg/mL. However, there's a large amount of physiologic, intra-individual variation. As a result, many experts recommend that changes of less than 2-fold not be considered significant.

Cholesterol levels of 240 mg/dL or higher are considered high, and levels ranging from 200 to 239 mg/dL are considered borderline-high.

There are an estimated 99.5 million American adults that have a total blood cholesterol level of 200mg/dL and higher. About 39.9 million American adults have levels of 240 mg/dL or above.

The body produces cholesterol in two ways: it makes some of it and the rest comes from meat and other animal products such as eggs, butter, cheese and whole milk.

A man should discuss elevated PSA test results with his doctor. There are many possible reasons for an elevated PSA level, including prostate cancer, benign prostate enlargement, inflammation, infection, age, and race. If there are no other indicators that suggest cancer, the doctor may recommend repeating DRE and PSA tests regularly to monitor any changes.

All shredders make noise. The sound level given in the charts indicates how much noise a given shredder will produce. 73 db is considered the maximum for office use. Lower numbers indicate a machine that will produce less noise.

Blue Ink generates enterprise-level applications. Throughout the industry this is a somewhat hazy term, but we mean our applications are n-tier and loosly coupled and designed for maximum throughput. See Application Architecture for more information.

The Level Diversity table tracks how often and how many times UT players play matches on a level they have not previously competed in. Players are ranked by total number of new levels played. The diversity ratio tracks the percentage of matches in which a player has played on a level he has not ever played for a match previously. Players with large totals or high ratios are the most versatile, and generally compete at a high level in all situations.

The Risk Level is a estimation of whether the conditions are favorable for the initiation of a late blight epidemic and determine what the fungicide spray recommendation will be. For more information on risk levels and their corresponding spray recommendations see the Explanations page.

This field generally equates with the grade level in which the students were enrolled when they took the test. For example, the DIBELS test levels are K, 1, 2, and 3, and a student's test level will be equal to the grade level in which they are enrolled. On the Terra Nova, however, Test Level indicates the version of the test that was taken by a student. Generally, students in the 5th grade took level 14 in the spring TerraNova and level 13 in the Fall administration. That is, most 5th graders.

The static level is the distance from the top of ground level to the top of the water level in your well.

An elevated anti-strep. titer (such as ASO or AntiDNAse-B) means the child has had a strep. infection sometime within the past few months, and his body created antibodies to fight the strep. bacteria. Some children create lots of antibodies and have very high titers (up to 2,000), while others have more modest elevations. The height of the titer elevation doesn't matter. Further, elevated titers are not a bad thing.

All clinical laboratory tests must define a normal range that best distinguishes those with disease from those without. Depending on what range is used to define normal will determine how many people with disease will fall into the normal range, and conversely, how many people without disease will fall into the abnormal range.