Detailed Explanation of Blood Lipid Test Items: Differences and Significance Between Five and Seven Items
What Does a Blood Lipid Test Actually Check?
Many people find that some hospitals test for five lipid markers while others test for seven. What is the significance of these tests?
Actually, blood lipids mainly consist of two types: triglycerides and cholesterol. Because blood lipids are insoluble in water and cannot be transported in the blood, they often bind to apolipoproteins. These bound proteins can then circulate normally in the blood.
There are several types of apolipoproteins, including B100, B48, A1, A2, E, Cs, and (a). The two most common types are apolipoprotein A1 and apolipoprotein B100. These two types of apolipoproteins do different things: Apolipoprotein A1 is the "good guy"—it binds to cholesterol to form high-density lipoprotein (HDL), primarily promoting the removal of cholesterol from peripheral tissues and transporting it to the liver for metabolism. Apolipoprotein B100, on the other hand, is the "bad guy"—it binds to cholesterol to form low-density lipoprotein (LDL), which is then taken up and utilized by peripheral tissues through its receptors. Excessive amounts can easily lead to cholesterol deposition on blood vessel walls, forming plaques.
In hospital laboratories, lipoproteins are centrifuged at high speed to produce lipoproteins of different qualities, such as high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), intermediate-density lipoprotein (IDL), very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL), and lipoprotein (a). High-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) refer to the cholesterol contained within HDL and LDL, respectively.
Therefore, the five lipid items in a hospital's blood lipid test report include triglycerides, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and lipoprotein (a), while the seven lipid items are the same as those above, plus apolipoprotein A1 and apolipoprotein B100.
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