Regular blood lipid check is very important, but before blood lipid check, the following points should be noted.
1. Fasting: fasting starts at 10 o’clock the night before blood collection, and venous blood is taken from 9 o’clock to 10 o’clock the next morning, i.e. morning blood collection on a fast of 12 hours or more.
2, the last meal before taking blood test should be noted: avoid high-fat food; do not drink alcohol, because drinking alcohol can significantly increase the concentration of plasma triglyceride-rich lipoproteins and high-density lipoproteins (HDL), resulting in errors in laboratory results.
3. The test should be performed in a relatively stable physiological and pathological state. Lipid levels can change with some physiological and pathological states. Such as: trauma, acute infection, fever, myocardial infarction, women’s menstruation, pregnancy, etc.
4. Do not take certain drugs when the examination
Such as birth control pills, beta-blockers (such as: insulin), thiazide diuretics (such as dihydrocoumarol, chlorothiazide), hormonal drugs, etc. can affect the level of blood lipids, resulting in test errors.
It is important to pay attention to the above-mentioned conditions before going to the hospital to ensure that the test results are accurate.
If you have an abnormal blood lipid test, you should take some time off to have your blood lipid tested again, and then ask your doctor to help determine the diagnosis of hyperlipidemia.
Teach you to read lipid labs
In addition to scientific research, there are six commonly used clinical tests: total cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, Apo A, Apo B and other items. The above items may not always be available at different levels of hospitals due to different medical conditions.
The most common problem you encounter when reading the test sheets is that you cannot understand some of the abbreviated English codes written on them. Here, we introduce some of the symbols that are mostly used on the test sheets.
TC: stands for total plasma cholesterol, but also T-CHO stands for total plasma cholesterol.
TG: stands for triglycerides: HDL-c stands for plasma high-density lipoprotein cholesterol.
LDL-C: represents plasma LDL cholesterol.
ApoA1: represents plasma apolipoprotein A1.
ApoB: stands for plasma Apo B.
Another question that comes up when looking at the labs is what the normal values of these indicators should be. The following general information is presented.
Total plasma cholesterol: 3.36 to 5.78 mmol/L (130 to 200 mg/dl).
Plasma triglycerides: 0.45 – 1.81 mmol/L (40 – 160 mg/dl) for men; 0.23 – 1.22 mmol/L (20 – 108 mg/dL) for women; plasma LDL cholesterol: 0.9 – 2.19 mmol/L (35 – 85 mg/dL). Apolipoprotein A1: 110–160mg/dL.
Plasma LDL cholesterol: <3.12 mmol/L (120 mg/dL).
Apolipoprotein A1: 110-160mg/dl;
Apolipoprotein B: 69 to 99mg/dl;
When the above values on the lipid lab are found to be outside the normal range, the first thing to check is whether the blood sample was taken in a fasting state. The patient is usually asked to fast from 10 o’clock the night before the blood is taken, and the venous blood is taken from 9 o’clock to 10 o’clock the next morning. Secondly, attention should be paid to the subject’s alcohol consumption, as alcohol consumption can significantly increase the concentration of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins and high-density lipoproteins in plasma. Again, when analyzing the results, one should take into account the fact that lipid and lipoprotein levels themselves have large biological fluctuations, some of which are due to seasonal changes, menstrual cycles, and concomitant diseases. Finally, it is time to look for the causes from a clinical point of view. The following highlights the clinical significance of total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL, HDL and apolipoproteins.
Clinical significance of total cholesterol: Increase is seen in biliary obstruction, nephrotic syndrome, chronic glomerulonephritis, amyloidosis, atherosclerosis, hypertension, diabetes, hypothyroidism, infectious hepatitis, portal cirrhosis, some chronic pancreatitis, spontaneous hypercholesterolemia, familial hyper-a-lipoproteinemia, senile cataracts and psoriasis. Decrease is seen in severe anemia, acute infection, hyperthyroidism, steatorrhea, tuberculosis, congenital serum lipoprotein deficiency and malnutrition.
Clinical significance of triglycerides: increased is seen in hyperlipidemia, atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease, diabetes mellitus, nephrotic syndrome, biliary obstruction, hypothyroidism, acute pancreatitis, glycogen accumulation disorder, and primary triglyceridemia. Clinical significance of decreased HDL cholesterol: suggests susceptibility to coronary artery disease.
Clinical significance of increased LDL cholesterol: indicates susceptibility to coronary heart disease and cerebrovascular disease caused by atherosclerosis.
Clinical significance of apolipoproteins: ApoA, ApoA, and ApoB can be used to estimate cardiovascular and cerebrovascular risk. Decreased HDL ApoA and increased ApoB are most evident in cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease, and are also seen in hyperlipoproteinemia and other abnormal lipoproteinemia.
Finally, it should be noted that the normal values of the indicators may not be exactly the same from one medical unit to another due to differences in the methods used, the conditions of the experiments, etc. In general, the normal reference values are indicated on the test sheets, so you can compare the measured indicators to see if they exceed the normal range.