The use of SI units in reporting results obtained in hospital laboratories.

This paper outlines some recommendations for the use of SI units in reporting the results of investigations made in hospital laboratories. It is based on a report prepared by a working party of representatives of a number of organisations» which was approved in 1973 by the councils or committees of these organi­ sations. A summary of the main recommendations has already been published (Baron, 1973). In recommending the introduction of SI units for the reporting of results obtained in hospital labora­ tories in the U.K., the working party are following the decisions of the relevant international associa­ tions (IUPAC-IFCC, 1972a and b; ICSH-IFCC­ WAPS, 1972). Laboratories all over the world are, or will be, adopting SI units (Young, 1974). During recent years users of laboratory results (physicians, nurses, pharmacists, etc.) have made the change from the Imperial system of weights and measures to the metric system. In most hospitals the first stage of SI will have already been introduced, namely, stan­ dardisation of symbols for units, and replacement of the equivalent by the mole for monovalent ions where no change in number results (Royal College of Pathologists Working Party, 1970).