N. Harris et al., 3 ROUTINE METHODS FOR MEASURING HIGH-DENSITY-LIPOPROTEIN CHOLESTEROL COMPARED WITH THE REFERENCE METHOD, Clinical chemistry, 42(5), 1996, pp. 738-743
We compared the performance of three methods for quantifying high-dens
ity lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) with the Reference Method for HDL-
C, using samples with a wide range of triglyceride (TG) concentrations
(290-18 000 mg/L). All three comparison assays-utilizing a magnetic d
extran sulfate precipitating reagent, a direct method, and a standard
MgCl2-dextran sulfate reagent-were precise, with a run-to-run CV of le
ss than or equal to 4.1%. However, the systematic error of these assay
s exceeded the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) performan
ce goal of less than or equal to 10% in half of the concentration rang
es tested. Nevertheless, the total error of the assays generally meets
the current 22% limit set by the NCEP. Although both the magnetic dex
tran sulfate precipitation reagent and the direct assay can be perform
ed more rapidly than the MgCl2-dextran sulfate assay, the direct assay
involves no sample preparation and requires only 4 mu L of sample exc
luding the dead space. Although precipitation is frequently inadequate
with the MgCl2-dextran sulfate reagent at TG concentrations > 6000 mg
/L, both the magnetic and the direct reagent show no interference from
high TG concentrations as great as 18 000 mg/L.