The Impact of Lipaemia on the Laboratory Results in a Patient With Diabetes

Diabetic dyslipidaemia influences many laboratory results, which would not appear erroneous in the context of diabetic end organ damage, and can lead to inappropriate clinician response and treatment. Alternatively, abnormal results can be missed due to interference, again with potential consequences. Markedly raised haemoglobin levels are not commonly in keeping with diabetic complications and can alert presiding clinicians to lab interference and to treat results with caution. The vast majority of full blood count analyses make use of a spectrophotometric hemolysate method, which is influenced by dyslipidaemia. In this context, the less performed isovolumetric intact red cell spectrophotometric measurement demonstrated the true haemoglobin value. This case emphasises the need for correlation between laboratory healthcare workers and clinicians to interrogate artefactual laboratory results.