How does not fasting for the standard lipids panel change the results?
In: Biology
When you get a lipid panel it measures a couple things. Total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, Triglycerides, etc. The ‘bad cholesterol,’ LDL is not measured directly on many tests (newer tests may measure it directly). Historically, the LDL is calculated using: Total cholesterol – HDL – Triglycerides/5.
While eating does not change some of those cholesterol values much, they can change your triglycerides (especially with fatty meals) for a few hours. Thus it will also affect your ‘LDL’ measurement. Nowadays we put less emphasis on fasting unless your Triglycerides are high to begin with.
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