Friedewald, Martin/Hopkins, or Sampson/NIH: Which is the Best Method to Estimate LDL-Cholesterol?

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) is the main cause of death in Brazil and most of the world. Reduction in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) is the first lipid goal to prevent ASCVD. The decision on the initiation or intensification of LDL-c lowering drug therapy is based on the risk of events and the LDL-c level, so an accurate determination of LDL-c is highly desirable.

The gold standard method to determine the plasma concentration of LDL-c is β-quantification, an expensive, time-consuming procedure based on ultracentrifugation and precipitation. Direct methods that use proprietary chemicals instead of ultracentrifugation are also time-consuming and costly. Moreover, they lack standardization, and the accuracy is not always good.

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