IMPORTANCE OF TIME INTERVAL BETWEEN REPEATED MEASUREMENTS OF TOTAL OR HIGH-DENSITY-LIPOPROTEIN CHOLESTEROL WHEN ESTIMATING AN INDIVIDUALS BASE-LINE CONCENTRATIONS

  • 1 October 1987
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 33  (10) , 1913-1915
Abstract
We studied intra-individual variation in total and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol in healthy volunteers (22 men and 19 women, ages 19 to 62 years) on controlled natural diets. The within-person coefficient of variation (CV) depended on the interval between blood samples, increasing from about 2% to 3% for measurements made 24 h apart to 4% to 5% for measurements made at four-day intervals or longer. We conclude that within-subject fluctuations in total and HDL cholesterol have a time constant of several days. Multiple measurements are generally needed to decide whether an asymptomatic subject exceeds a certain concentration of total or HDL cholesterol; we recommend that such measurements be made at least four days apart.

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