VPB 112: General Veterinary Biochemistry (1+1)

Systeme Internationale Units

SYSTEME INTERNATIONAL UNITS

• The Systeme Internationale d’Unites (SI) or the International system of Units was recommended for use in the health profession by the world Health assembly in May 1977. The SI is the culmination of more than a century of effort to develop universally acceptable units of measure.
• The user of SI has been rapidly gaining acceptance with many nations now mandating its use and many others strongly recommending its use. Furthermore, many scientific journals now require that units be expressed in SI along with the conventional units if used. The following table gives a partial list of biochemical parameters with their conventional “old” units and new SI units with conversion factor:

SI Conversion Factors

S.No.	Biochemical Constituent	Conventional New SI “old” unit X Factor = Unit
1.	Albumin	g / dl	10.0	mmol / l
2.	Bilirubin	mg / dl	17.10	μmol / l
3.	Calcium	mg / dl	0.2495	mmol / l
4.	Chloride	mEq / l	1.0	mmol / l
5.	Cholesterol	mg / dl	0.02586	mmol / l
6.	Creatinine	mg / dl	88.4	μmol / l
7.	Fibrinogen	mg / dl	0.01	g / l
8.	Globulin	g / dl	10.0	mmol / l
9.	Glucose	mg / dl	0.05551	mmol / l
10.	Phosphorous	mg / dl	0.3229	mmol / l
11.	Potassium	mEq / l	1.0	mmol / l
12.	Protein	g / dl	10.0	mmol / l
13.	Triglycerides	mg / dl	0.01129	mmol / l
14.	Urea	mg / dl	0.1665	mmol / l
15.	Urea Nitrogen	mg / dl	0.3570	mmol Urea / l
16.	Uric acid	mg / dl	59.48	μmol / l
17.	*Enzymes	U / l	16.67	nkat / l

* There is yet no general agreement or recommendation for the use of the katal (1 kat = 1 mol / s) in place of the widely used international unit (1 U = 1 μmol / m). The U / L should be continued to be used for all enzyme activities.