Appendix A: Conversion Factors and Anthropometrics

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CONVERSION FACTORS

SI Units

SI (le Système International d’Unités) units are used in many countries to express clinical laboratory and serum drug concentration data^*. Instead of employing units of mass (such as micrograms), the SI system uses moles (mol) to represent the amount of a substance. A molar solution contains 1 mol (the molecular weight of the substance in grams) of the solute in 1 L of solution. The following formula is used to convert units of mass to moles (mcg/mL to μmol/L or, by substitution of terms, mg/mL to mmol/L or ng/mL to nmol/L).

Micromoles per Liter (μmol/L)

Milliequivalents

An equivalent weight of a substance is that weight which will combine with or replace 1 g of hydrogen; a milliequivalent is 1/1,000 of an equivalent weight.

Milliequivalents per Liter (mEq/L):

Approximate Milliequivalents

Valences and Atomic Weights of Selected Ions