Fasting and non-fasting lipid profile – A comparative study

Abstract

Sedentary lifestyle and lack of physical activity predisposes to Hyperlipidaemia which is a modifiable risk factor for coronary artery disease. Deranged lipid profile is also seen in patients of hypertension and diabetes mellitus which are among most common non communicable diseases seen mainly in developed and some of developing countries. Dyslipidaemia depending upon the severity will be monitored by Lipid profile usually done in fasting state and based on differential derangement of lipid levels, treated accordingly. Most of the nations have switched on to non-fasting lipid profiles owing to its convenience and feasibility of testing and also probably considering the fact that body is exposed to non-fasting lipid levels for most time in 24 hours of the day. This pilot study tried to compare and study the fasting and non-fasting lipid profile components by doing an observational cross sectional study on 50 patients attending the Haasana Institute of Medical Sciences laboratory services, Haasana for regular health checkup. There was no statistically significant difference between total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol and LDL cholesterol in fasting and post prandial state whereas triglycerides and VLDL showed significant statistical difference with p value less than 0.05. Our study concludes that non fasting lipid profile is better both technically, operationally with better diagnostic and prognostic capability with respect to monitoring and treatment of dyslipidaemias as compared to fasting lipid profile.