Rosenson - Figure 3 - Current challenges Text

Some of the current challenges (Figure) relate to measurement of HDL cholesterol. The original epidemiologic studies used precipitation methods, which are a well validated method for measuring HDL cholesterol, but now, due to costs and time constraints, hospital and commercial laboratories are using direct assays for HDL cholesterol. What most clinicians do not realize is that these direct HDL cholesterol measurements are highly variable, and this is not limited only to patients with high triglycerides.

Rosenson RS. J Clin Lipidol. 2011; 5(6).