Fasting and Non-Fasting Lipid Profile among Health Care Workers at Teaching Hospital Batticaloa SriLanka

Abstract

Requesting patients to come with long fasting state (12 - 14 hours) for lipid profile measurements are a major inconvenience. However, most blood tests, even glycemic management, can be done in a non-fasting state, for example by requesting an HbA1C. It is understandable that when we order lipid profile test, laboratories are very rigid on fasting (12 - 14 h) or refuse to do the test if fasting is not enough. To answer these delusions, we conducted a cross-sectional study among the health care workers at Teaching Hospital Batticaloa, SriLanka, after an overnight fast (12 - 14 hours) blood taken for lipid profile. Following weeks, we collected blood from the same healthcare workers, after breakfast (2 - 4 hours after meal). In this study, measurements of fasting lipid profile, including high-density lipoproteins (HDL), low-density lipoproteins (LDL), total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG) and non-HDL significantly (p < 0.05) differ from non-fasting lipid profile measurement. The mean difference in lipid profile in fasting versus non-fasting among healthcare workers was 34.13 mg/dl for TG, −5.65 mg/dl for total TC, −1.94 mg/dl for HDL-cholesterol, 3.71 mg/dl for non-HDL and 12.3 mg/dl for LDL-cholesterol. This momentous change of different meanings does not play any significant role in cardiovascular risk assessment. However, a patient with a family history of the premature atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), or familial hyperlipidemia, screening and follow-up should preferably be performed with fasting.