Question

Identify the appropriate specimen for lipid testing and describe the basic features of cholesterol and triglyceride assays.

Answer 1

Identification for apprpiate specimen

Normal plasma or serum is a clear and light yellow to straw in color. This turbid serum or plasma appears cloudy or milky.

Serum or plasma may be cloudy due to bacterial contamination or chronic or transient high lipid levels in the patient's blood.

Suitable Specimens Serum and plasma are acceptable specimens. The National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) recommends using fasting specimens.

1 • Serum: Use serum collected by standard venipuncture techniques into glass or plastic tubes with or without gel barriers. Ensure complete clot formation has taken place prior to centrifugation. Separate serum from red blood cells or gel as soon after collection as possible. Some specimens, especially those from patients receiving anticoagulant or thrombolytic therapy, may take longer to complete their clotting processes. Fibrin clots may subsequently form in these sera and the clots could cause erroneous test results.

Plasma: Use plasma collected by standard venipuncture techniques into glass or plastic tubes. Acceptable anticoagulants are lithium heparin (with or without gel barrier) and sodium heparin. Ensure centrifugation is adequate to remove platelets. Separate plasma from red blood cells or gel as soon after collection as possible

Feauture of cholestrol and triglycerdies assays

In order to measure the amount of “good” and “bad” cholesterol and triglycerides, a type of fat, in human blood.

Cholesterol is a soft, waxy fat that the body needs to function properly. However, too much cholesterol can lead to:

heart, disease,strokeatherosclerosis, a clogging or hardening of your arteries.

A complete cholesterol test measures four types of lipids, or fats, in the blood:

1.Total cholesterol: This is the total amount of cholesterol in your blood.

2.Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol: This is referred to as “bad” cholesterol. Too much of it raises your risk of heart attack, stroke, and atherosclerosis.

3.High-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol: This is referred to as “good” cholesterol because it helps remove LDL cholesterol from your blood.

4.Triglycerides: When you eat, your body converts the calories it doesn’t need into triglycerides, which are stored in your fat cells. People who are overweight, diabetic, eat too many sweets, or drink too much alcohol can have high triglyceride levels.