Importance of time interval between repeated measurements of total or high-density lipoprotein cholesterol when estimating an individual's baseline concentrations

We studied intra-individual variation in total and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol in healthy volunteers (22 men and 19 women, ages 19 to 62 years) on controlled natural diets. The within-person coefficient of variation (CV) depended on the interval between blood samples, increasing from about 2% to 3% for measurements made 24 h apart to 4% to 5% for measurements made at four-day intervals or longer. We conclude that within-subject fluctuations in total and HDL cholesterol have a time constant of several days. Multiple measurements are generally needed to decide whether an asymptomatic subject exceeds a certain concentration of total or HDL cholesterol; we recommend that such measurements be made at least four days apart.