Lipid profile

A lipid profile, also called a cholesterol test or lipid panel, measures the fats (lipids) in your blood. It reports total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, the 'bad' kind that can build up as plaque in the arteries, HDL cholesterol, the 'good' kind that helps to clear LDL, and triglycerides, another type of fat. Labs may work out LDL from the other numbers or measure it directly. Many reports also show non-HDL cholesterol, which is the total minus the HDL.

High cholesterol does not usually cause symptoms, so a blood test is the only way to know. The test helps your doctor judge your chance of heart disease, heart attack, stroke and narrowed leg arteries. It matters more if you have a risk factor such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, smoking, extra weight, little physical activity, or a family history of heart disease or high cholesterol. People at higher risk may need testing more often, so ask your doctor how often is right for you.

Your doctor or the lab will tell you whether to fast. Some do, usually for 8 to 12 hours without food or drink, and the test is often done in the morning. Others do not need you to fast. Follow what you are told, and ask whether you may drink water during a fast.

A lipid profile is a simple blood draw:

1. You sit down and roll up your sleeve. A health worker puts a small needle into a vein in your arm. You may feel a brief sting.
2. Blood runs into a small tube. This usually takes under five minutes.
3. The sample goes to the lab.

A finger-prick cholesterol test, which gives a result within minutes, is sometimes used instead. If you use a home kit, follow its instructions and tell your doctor about the result.

You may have a small bruise where the needle went in. Results from a blood sample sent to a lab usually take a few days.

A lipid profile carries very little risk. You may have slight pain or bruising where the needle went in, and this usually fades quickly.

Your report lists each result next to the lab's own normal range, which depends on age, sex and the method the lab uses. Healthy targets differ for children, men and women. In general a lower LDL and a higher HDL are better for the heart. What is right for you also depends on your family history, lifestyle and other risks such as high triglycerides, so your doctor reads the numbers with those, and may also estimate your chance of a heart attack or stroke over the next 10 years.

If your cholesterol is high, the doctor will talk about ways to lower it. These include eating less saturated fat, keeping a healthy weight, being more active, stopping smoking, limiting alcohol, and sometimes medicine.

What a lipid profile cannot show: it measures fats in the blood, not whether the heart or arteries are already damaged, so your doctor may ask for other tests such as an ECG. A test for lipoprotein(a), a fat-carrying particle that is largely inherited, is not part of the routine panel. It may be ordered if your family has a history of stroke or early heart disease.