Biological Variability of Small Dense LDL, HDL3, and Triglyceride-Rich Lipoprotein Cholesterol

The guideline-recommended lipid panel for cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk assessment measures total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, triglycerides, and calculated low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. Measured cholesterol in subfractions of HDL and LDL purportedly improve CVD risk prediction. Homogenous enzymatic methods are now available for measurement of the cholesterol within small dense LDL (sLDL), small dense HDL (HDL3), and triglyceride-rich lipoproteins (TRL). For meaningful interpretation of these measurements, an understanding of the potential sources and extent of result variability is needed. The smallest difference between serial measurements within a patient that likely reflects a change in clinical status is called the reference change value (RCV). Biological variability and reference change values (RCV) are well-characterized for basic lipids but there is limited information for sLDL, HDL3 or TRL. The objective of this study was to determine intra- and inter-individual variability for sLDL, HDL3, and TRL in a healthy reference population. Serum samples were collected from 24 healthy subjects (n=14 female/10 male) daily for three days (non-fasting), daily for five days (fasting), weekly for four weeks (fasting), and monthly for 7 months (fasting). sLDL, HDL3, and TRL cholesterol were measured in duplicate by enzymatic colorimetric assays (Denka, Japan) on a Roche Cobas c501. Each source of variability (between subject, within subject, and analytical) was calculated using random-effects regression models to estimate each variance component including the overall variation, standard deviation (SD), coefficient of variation (CV), and proportion of total variance (between-subject, within-subject, and analytical). Using these analytical and biological variances, the reference change value (RCV), index of individuality (IoI), and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) were determined. Analytic variability (CVa) from monthly testing was 1.2%, 1.1%, and 1.5% for sLDL, HDL3, and TRL, respectively. Monthly within-subject variability (CVw) was 17.1% for sLDL, 7.4% for HDL3 and 25.7% for TRL. Monthly between-subject variability (CVb) was 32.2%, 13.93%, and 33.4% for sLDL, HDL3, and TRL, respectively. Most of the monthly variation was attributed to between-subject variation for all three tests. Within-subject variation accounted for 37% of TRL variation and 22% for both sLDL and HLD3. Within-subject RCVs for monthly measurements were 16.9mg/dL for sLDL, 5.3mg/dL for HDL3, and 15.1mg/dL for TRL. IoIs for monthly testing were 0.81 for TRL, 0.57 for sLDL, and 0.61 for HDL3. Our data demonstrate that sLDL, HDL3, and TRL show low analytical variability, moderate within-subject variability, but high between-subject variability when measured by homogenous assays in a healthy population. The IoI value (>0.6) for TRL suggests use of a reference interval is appropriate for result interpretation. Conversely, clinical cut-points may be more useful than reference intervals for sLDL and HDL3 which had IoIs ~0.6. These findings may be useful for clinical interpretation, particularly when comparing successive measurements of these analytes.