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PEM Playbook

PEM Playbook – Big Labs, Little People: Troponin, BNP, D-Dimer, and Lactate

It’s a busy shift. Today no one seems to have a chief complaint. Someone sends a troponin on a child. Good, bad, or ugly, how are you going to interpret the result? And while we’re at it – what labs do I need to be careful with in children – sometimes the normal ranges of common labs can have our heads spinning! Read on for bread-and-butter pediatric blood work and further, to answer the question – what’s up with troponin, lactate, d-dimer, and BNP in kids?