The lipaemic index: clinical observations

Area of Science:

• Clinical Chemistry
• Laboratory Medicine
• Biochemistry

Background:

• The lipaemic index is crucial for assessing blood sample suitability for laboratory analysis.
• Limited understanding exists regarding patient demographics associated with elevated lipaemic index values.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate patient demographics and serum lipid concentrations in blood samples with a raised lipaemic index.
• To identify factors contributing to lipaemia in patient samples.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective case review of laboratory results for 4271 patient samples analyzed in July 2014.
• Analysis of samples with a lipaemic index ≥ 0.4.
• Statistical correlation analysis between lipaemic index, triglyceride, and cholesterol concentrations.

Main Results:

• Overall, 7.3% of samples exhibited a raised lipaemic index (≥ 0.4).
• Males (56%) and neonates (30.6%) were the most frequent groups with lipaemic samples.
• Moderate positive correlation (r=0.61) between triglyceride and lipaemic index; weak inverse correlation (r=-0.41) between cholesterol and lipaemic index.

Conclusions:

• Male and neonatal patient samples are most prone to showing a raised lipaemic index.
• While triglyceride and cholesterol levels correlate with lipaemia, they do not explain all the variance, suggesting other factors influence the lipaemic index.