What is the clinical use of total cholesterol results measurement?

Czech version

Authors: Vladimír Soška
Authors‘ workplace: Oddělení klinické biochemie, FN u sv. Anny v Brně, II. interní klinika, LF MU Brno
Published in: Vnitř Lék 2020; 66(1): 49-51
Category: Differential Diagnosis Column or What You Can Be Asked at a Postgraduate Certification Exam

Overview

Assessment of total cholesterol concentration is one of the basic and relatively frequently determined blood analytes. However, significance of this parameter is limited to only a few areas: the main one is the estimation of the 10-year cumulative risk of the first fatal atherosclerotic event (myocardial infarction, stroke or other occlusive vascular disease including sudden cardiac death) according to the SCORE tables (Systematic Coronary Risk Estimation), where the knowledge of total cholesterol concentration cannot be dispensed with. This risk value can be also used to estimate the vascular age of the patient. Other main areas of application are: indicative evaluation of lipid metabolism at patient´s preventive examinations; along with other blood lipid parameters for differential diagnosis of dyslipidemias; in laboratories to calculate LDL-cholesterol and non HDL-cholesterol concentrations. However, at least triglyceride levels and serum appearance have to be taken into account to correctly interpret the total cholesterol result.

Keywords:

cholesterol – chylomicrons – triglycerides – LDL-cholesterol – VLDL-cholesterol

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