Translations:Low-density lipoprotein/21/en

This formula provides an approximation with fair accuracy for most people, assuming the blood was drawn after fasting for about 14 hours or longer, but does not reveal the actual LDL particle concentration because the percentage of fat molecules within the LDL particles which are cholesterol varies, as much as 8:1 variation. There are several formulas published addressing the inaccuracy in LDL-C estimation. The inaccuracy is based on the assumption that VLDL-C (Very low density lipoprotein cholesterol) is always one-fifth of the triglyceride concentration. A new formulae published recently addresses this issue by using an adjustable factor or by using a regression equation. There are few studies which have compared the LDL-C values derived form this recently published formula and values obtained by direct enzymatic method. Direct enzymatic method are found to be accurate and it has to be the test of choice in clinical situations. In the resource poor settings, the option of using the formula has to be considered.