Measurement of small dense low-density lipoprotein particles

Low density lipoprotein (LDL) particles are heterogeneous with respect to their size, density and lipid composition. Among LDL particles, the smaller and denser LDL particles [small dense (sd) LDL] are more atherogenic and the sd LDL phenotype is strongly associated with development of coronary heart disease. Here we will review various methods for measurement of sd LDL. Although ultracentrifugation, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and gradient-gel electrophoresis (GGE) are usually employed for the measurement of sd LDL, such methods are either too laborious or expensive for general clinical use. We recently established a simple precipitation method for the quantification of sd LDL. This method is applicable to routine clinical use and allows the rapid measurement of a large number of samples.