Hi Alice. Got your reading glasses handy ?
LIPID PROFILE
The lipid profile is a group of tests that are often requested together to determine risk of coronary heart disease. The tests that make up a lipid profile are tests that have been shown to be good indicators of whether someone is likely to have a heart attack or stroke caused by blockage of blood vessels (“hardening of the arteries”).
What tests are included in a lipid profile?
The lipid profile includes total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol (sometimes called bad cholesterol), HDL-cholesterol (often called good cholesterol) and triglycerides. Sometimes the report will include additional calculated values such as total cholesterol/HDL-cholesterol ratio or a risk score based on lipid profile results, age, sex, and other risk factors.
The lipid profile is used to guide providers in deciding how a person at risk should be treated. The results of the lipid profile are considered along with other known risk factors of heart disease to develop a plan of treatment and follow-up.
CHOLESTEROL
The cholesterol level measured in your blood will be considered along with other risk factors for heart disease (high blood pressure, smoking etc.) when assessing your overall risk of developing heart disease. This overall assessment is what will be used to decide whether or not you require further treatment in the form of dietary changes or drugs to lower your cholesterol level.
If you are taking treatment to lower your cholesterol, the target is to lower your total cholesterol to a value less than 4 mmol/L, with a fall of around 20-25%.
HDL
High levels of HDL cholesterol are better than low HDL cholesterol. The higher your HDL cholesterol level, the lower risk of developing heart disease. There are two ways that HDL cholesterol values are interpreted—as a percent of total cholesterol or as a measured value.
Percent: If HDL is 20% of the total cholesterol, the risk of heart disease is average. If HDL is more than 20% of the total cholesterol, the risk of heart disease is less than average. This is usually expressed as a ratio of cholesterol to HDL. It is desirable for the cholesterol/HDL ratio to be less than 5.
Measured Value: If HDL cholesterol is less than 1.0 mmol/L in men or less than 1.2 mmol/L in women, there is an increased risk of heart disease. A desirable level of HDL is greater than 1.0 mmol/L for men and greater than 1.2mmol/L for women and is associated with average risk of heart disease. A good level of HDL is 1.5 mmol/L or more and is associated with a less than average risk of heart disease.
HDL should be interpreted in the context of the overall findings from the lipid profile and in consultation with your doctor about other risk factors for heart disease.
LDL
Elevated levels of LDL indicate risk for heart disease. Treatment (with diet or drugs) for high LDL aims to lower LDL to a target value of less than 3 mmol/L.
This is especially important if you have other risk factors for heart disease. Risk factors include cigarette smoking, hypertension, low HDL (< 1 mmol/L), family history, age (male 55 or older; female 65 or older), being overweight, and failure to exercise regularly.
TRYGLYCERIDES
If you have a high fasting triglyceride level, your doctor may wish to find out whether you have a high fat diet, a high intake of alcohol, or have diabetes. It is unusual to have high triglycerides without also having high cholesterol. Having high lipids may increase your risk of developing heart disease and you may be given treatment aimed at lowering your lipid levels. The type of treatment used may differ depending on whether cholesterol, triglycerides, or both are high.
When triglycerides are very high, there is a risk of developing pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas).
Testing should be done when you are fasting. For 10 to 16 hours before the test, only water is permitted. In addition, alcohol should not be consumed for the 24 hours before the test.
If you are diabetic and your blood sugar is out of control, triglycerides will be very high.
Triglycerides may change dramatically after a meal. Even fasting levels vary considerably from day to day. Because of the day to day variation modest changes in fasting triglycerides measured on different days are not considered to be unusual or abnormal.
Ken.
