Brief Answer:
Information

Detailed Answer:
Hello and welcome,

Lab tests need to be interpreted in the context of a person's age, gender, past lab results, and symptoms or illnesses for which they were ordered. Each lab result, if high or low, can be due to a long list of possible causes, so they need to be interpreted with some context.

I don't have much information to go on here except for the lab value itself.

I'll start with the HGB which stands for hemoglobin.
Different labs vary slightly in the range they consider normal.
For men, 13.5 to 17.5 grams per deciliter is normal. For women, 12.0 to 15.5 grams per deciliter. Menstruating women tend to be in the lower range.
Hemoglobin is the molecule in your blood that carries oxygen to the cells so they can function, and takes away carbon dioxide. I don't know what gender you are, but in general, a Hgb of 16 is normal.

Hct stands for hematocrit. A normal range for men would 38.8 to 50 percent. For women, 34.9 to 44.5 percent. The hematocrit measures the amount of red blood cells per blood. If your blood is diluted or concentrated because of drinking a lot of water or fasting, that can affect your HCT. Hgb tends to be more accurate in measuring for anemia for this reason.

BUN stands for blood urea nitrogen level. This gives some information about how your kidneys are functioning. Nitrogen in the blood can come from the breakdown products of things in your body and the BUN measures these. A normal range is around 7-20 mg/dl, but it varies by age. Also, if you are a bit dehydrated, the BUN will go up on the test. Creatinine level is not as affected by hydration status though.

AST is a liver enzyme - and normal is 10-40 units per liter. Yours is very slightly elevated. Many things can cause this including certain medications that are metabolized by the liver, drinking alcohol, and being overweight with central (around the middle) excess weight.

I hope this information is what you were looking for.

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Brief Answer:
Information - and sorry for the delay.

Detailed Answer:
Hello - I'm sorry for the delay in responding. Individually we aren't online at all times so I didn't see your follow up question until now.

To tell if the medications are affecting your kidneys, we should also look at the creatinine level. Usually when BUN is tested, creatinine is also (and electrolytes too, such as sodium and potassium). If these are in a normal range, a BUN of 21 is usually not significant and may be due to a high protein diet, inadequate water intake before the blood was drawn, or from fluid losses (which you did not describe such as from being on a diuretic).

Regarding the Hgb, yours is on the higher end, but some labs would consider yours to be within normal limits. I recommend going back to look at previous complete blood count tests where hemoglobin and hematocrit were measured to see if there is any significant change. If it has always been around this level, then that may be what is normal for you. If however, it has increased significantly or there is an increasing trend, then I suggest asking your doctor to follow up with a peripheral smear blood test. CBC blood tests are automated and a machine counts the blood cells. With a peripheral smear, a person trained to do so looks at the blood under a microscope and can see if the CBC test was accurate as well as looking at size and shape of blood cells. Hemoglobin can go up if a person smokes cigarettes, lives at a high altitude, or other reasons that involve less oxygen content which causes the body to compensate by making more hemoglobin. Again, though, yours is not really abnormal - just at the high end.

The very slight elevation in your AST could be from either of your medications, but it isn't in the range of elevation where we get worried and start doing an evaluation. I would recommend monitoring your liver enzymes though (by rechecking in a few months) as these medications can affect the liver in some people.

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