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Correlation between serum and plasma lipoprotein(a) measurements: ARIC study
Yakubu Bene-Alhasan1, Caroline Sun1, Arsalan Hamid1
1Section of Cardiovascular Research, Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA (Bene-Alhasan, Sun, Hamid, Nambi, Ballantyne, and Hoogeveen).
Background:
Lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] is recommended for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk assessment and is targeted by new drugs in development. However, the association of Lp(a) with ASCVD was identified from epidemiologic studies that typically used plasma samples.
Objective:
To determine the agreement between serum- and plasma-based Lp(a) measurements.
Methods:
We measured Lp(a) in both EDTA plasma and serum using the same validated, isoform-insensitive assay in 100 Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities participants equally distributed across age, sex, race, and Lp(a) levels (0 to >200 nmol/L). We assessed correlation (Spearman), mean differences, and bias (Deming regression).
Results:
The correlation between serum and plasma was excellent (Spearman's r = 0.99). Deming regression yielded a slope of 1.05 (95% CI 1.03, 1.08) and an intercept of 0.26 nmol/L (95% CI -1.97, +2.41). Bland-Altman analysis identified no statistically significant mean difference (serum minus plasma: +7.7 nmol/L [95% CI -16.7, +32.0]).
Conclusion:
We demonstrated excellent agreement between serum and plasma Lp(a), supporting the use of either specimen for Lp(a) measurement and pooling data from both sources.
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