Government Funding Lapse
Because of a lapse in government funding, the information on this website may not be up to date, transactions submitted via the website may not be processed, and the agency may not be able to respond to inquiries until appropriations are enacted.

The NIH Clinical Center (the research hospital of NIH) is open. For more details about its operating status, please visit cc.nih.gov.

Updates regarding government operating status and resumption of normal operations can be found at opm.gov.

reference range

(REH-frents raynj)

In medicine, a set of values that a doctor uses to interpret a patient’s test results. The reference range for a given test is based on the results that are seen in 95% of the healthy population. Sometimes patients whose test results are outside of the reference range may be healthy, and some patients whose test results are within the reference range may have a health problem. The reference range for a test may be different for different groups of people (for example, men and women). Also called normal range, reference interval, and reference values.

reference range

Search NCI's Dictionary of Cancer Terms