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 Cholesterol test results obtained one to six hours after a meal were
not significantly different from results obtained after a fast,
researchers found.
"It could be implemented tomorrow with no problems at all," said
lead author Dr. Borge Nordestgaard, of the University of Copenhagen
in Denmark. "Today, the key players for keeping the fasting
procedure are the laboratories drawing the blood. They simply could
change the procedure tomorrow, and then nobody would fast anymore.
That is what we did in Denmark – and patients, clinicians and
laboratories were all happy with the change."
Nordestgaard told Reuters Health in an email that doctors
essentially just always had patients fast before a cholesterol test.
"So people got used to it without questioning the fasting
procedure," he said.
Typically, blood is drawn for a cholesterol test - known as a lipid
panel - after a person has fasted for at least eight hours, the
researchers write in the European Heart Journal.
In 2009, Denmark began using non-fasting cholesterol tests. One
advantage, the researchers say, is that forgoing fasting simplifies
the process for patients, doctors and laboratories. Also, patients
are more likely to get the test.
For the new analysis, the international team of researchers met
twice in person to look at data from a number of large studies, such
as the Nurses' Health Study, the Copenhagen General Population Study
and the Heart Protection Study.
The researchers found that not fasting, compared to fasting, didn't
significantly change the levels of substances typically measured
during a cholesterol test, including triglycerides, total
cholesterol, LDL (or bad) cholesterol and HDL (or good) cholesterol.
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"To improve patient compliance with lipid testing, we therefore
recommend the routine use of non-fasting lipid profiles," the
researchers write.
"These recommendations represent a joint consensus statement from
the European Atherosclerosis Society and European Federation of
Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine involving 21 World
medical experts from Europe, Australia and the US," said
Nordestgaard.
The research team cautions that fasting cholesterol tests may be
needed if a person has high triglycerides (or blood fats), is
recovering from pancreatitis or is starting certain medications that
can cause high triglycerides.
Nordestgaard said people should "stop fasting before a lipid profile
test, or even better push their local laboratory to stop the
requirement for fasting before cholesterol and triglyceride
testing."
Some specialists may resist, but "that also happened in Denmark,
although very few were against the change," Nordestgaard said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1NGHk4r European Heart Journal, online April
27, 2016.
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