Medical Unit Converter
Lab units between mg/dL and mmol/L, both ways.
Medical Unit Converter converts laboratory results between the mass units used in the United States and the SI units used almost everywhere else: glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides, creatinine, haemoglobin, bilirubin, calcium and urea. It shows the factor and a typical range in both. Values stay in your browser.
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Runs entirely on your device. No file or text you enter here is uploaded. How to verify it.
This is a calculation tool, not medical advice. The result is an estimate from a published formula and cannot account for your individual circumstances. Talk to a healthcare professional about anything that matters.
How to use Medical Unit Converter
- Pick the analyte that was measured.
- Type the value into either box; the other one follows.
- Check the factor used and the typical range shown in both units.
Questions about Medical Unit Converter
Where do the conversion factors come from?
From molar mass. Converting mg/dL to mmol/L divides by the molecular weight of the substance, which is why glucose uses 18.0 and cholesterol 38.7 — the same mass of a heavier molecule is fewer millimoles. Each factor and the molar mass behind it is shown next to the result rather than hidden.
Why is BUN not the same as urea?
Because BUN measures only the nitrogen in urea, not the whole molecule. A US report gives blood urea nitrogen, a European one gives whole urea, and they differ by a factor of 2.14 before any unit change. Treating them as interchangeable is the single most common error in this area, which is why it has its own entry here.
My result is slightly outside the range shown. What does that mean?
On its own, very little. A reference range is usually built to cover the middle 95% of a healthy population, so one healthy person in twenty falls outside it by construction. Ranges also shift with age, sex, pregnancy, ethnicity and whether you had eaten. The clinician who ordered the test reads it alongside everything else.
Why does my laboratory print a different range?
Because ranges are method-specific. Two laboratories can analyse the same sample on different analysers, with different antibodies or enzymatic methods, and publish different normal ranges for both. The range printed on your own report is the only one that applies to it; the ones here are illustrative.
Is haemoglobin ever reported in mmol/L?
Yes, in the Netherlands and parts of Scandinavia, on a monomer basis — multiply g/dL by 0.6206. A haemoglobin near 8 is a normal result there and an alarming one anywhere that reports g/dL, which is a good illustration of why the unit has to travel with the number.
Is Medical Unit Converter really free, with no limits?
Yes. There is no account, no daily cap, no file-size tier and no watermark, because there is no server cost to recover. The site is funded by clearly disclosed partner recommendations on the Partners page, never by metering the tools.
Are my files or text uploaded when I use Medical Unit Converter?
No. Everything is processed by JavaScript running in your browser, on your device. You can verify it: open your browser's developer tools, switch to the Network tab, and use the tool. You will see no request carrying your data — because there is nowhere for it to go.