There are various guidelines that physicians follow to help them manage their patients. These guidelines (such as the NCEP-ATP for lipids, ADA for blood glucose, etc)give ranges to what can be considered as acceptable, desirable, or needing medical management. How will a physician be able to know when he/she needs to start the patient on medication if a laboratory result falls within the reference range (within 'normal')of a particular laboratory but is considered 'abnormal' and needing medication by a treatment guideline? This can be a dilemma especially if a patient has no symptoms and just had laboratory tests done for general health check.

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