Blood Test Results Abbreviations

A blood test is an important diagnostic tool for determining the health status of a patient. The purpose of blood test abbreviations is to eliminate the redundancy of names and phrases that will be used repeatedly. Some of the abbreviated names include enzymes, proteins, risk factors and general conditions. The abbreviations below are only some of the abbreviations used.

Enzymes

• AST, SGOT, ALT and SGPT are enzymes found in the liver and muscles. AST and SGOT refer to aspartate transaminase and serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase, respectively. They are both the same enzyme. ALT and SGPT are also the same enzyme, alanine aminotransferase, or serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase, respectively.

Proteins

• Albumin and globulin measure the protein type and count in the body. The A/G Ratio refers to the relationship between the two.

Cholesterol

• HDL is the abbreviation for high density lipoproteins, LDL is low density lipoprotein, and VLDL is very low density cholesterol.

Risk Factors

• CHD refers to coronary heart disease. High lipoprotein (a) or Lp(a) can contribute to premature coronary heart disease.

Thyroid Hormones

• The two types of thyroid hormones measurable in blood are thyroxine indicated by T4, and triiodothyronine indicated by T3. FTI or T7 refers to the Free Thyroxine Index.

Blood Count

• CBC refers to complete blood count while WBC refers to only the white blood count. Hemoglobin is Hgb and hematocrit is Hct. PLT refers to the platelet count.