Milligram per cent is a traditional symbol used to denote a unit of measure of

concentration In chemistry, concentration is the abundance of a constituent divided by the total volume of a mixture. Several types of mathematical description can be distinguished: '' mass concentration'', '' molar concentration'', '' number concentration'' ...

. The traditional use of the 'mg%' symbol was meant to indicate the mass (in milligrams) of that chemical in 100 milliliters of solution (e.g., blood). The meaning of the symbol 'percent' is 'divided by 100', therefore the accurate meaning of the notation 'mg%' is 'milligrams divided by 100', which is a unit of

mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different element ...

, not a concentration. Therefore, for

dimensional analysis In engineering and science, dimensional analysis is the analysis of the relationships between different physical quantities by identifying their base quantities (such as length, mass, time, and electric current) and units of measure (such as ...

purposes, when denoting a concentration of mass divided by

volume Volume is a measure of occupied three-dimensional space. It is often quantified numerically using SI derived units (such as the cubic metre and litre) or by various imperial or US customary units (such as the gallon, quart, cubic inch). Th ...

, it has largely been replaced by units such as 'mg/dL' or the International System of Units equivalent. For example, a plasma ethanol concentration incorrectly denoted as 0.1 mg% can be written as '0.1 mg/dL' (or '1 mg/L', etc.) meaning a mass of 0.1 milligrams of ethyl alcohol per 100 milliliter

of plasma.

References

{{Medicine, state=collapsed Chemical properties Physiology Nephrology Blood tests

See also

References