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What is ‘LDL cholesterol’?

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LDL cholesterol is an important contributor to the risk of coronary heart disease, and its measurement is central to evaluating the effects of lipid-modifying therapies. Several ‘LDL-cholesterol’ assays exist but their methodologies differ, leading to between-assay heterogeneity in values of ‘LDL cholesterol’. We advocate the need for awareness of the potential implications.

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Fig. 1: Circulating, apoB-containing lipoproteins and methods for quantifying ‘LDL cholesterol’.

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Acknowledgements

M.V.H. is supported by a British Heart Foundation Intermediate Clinical Research Fellowship (FS/18/23/33512). M.A.-K. is supported by a Senior Research Fellowship from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia (APP1158958) and works in a Unit that is supported by the University of Bristol and UK Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12013/1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Research Council Population Health Research Unit, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Michael V. Holmes

  2. Clinical Trial Service Unit & Epidemiological Studies Unit, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Michael V. Holmes

  3. Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

    Michael V. Holmes & Mika Ala-Korpela

  4. Systems Epidemiology, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Mika Ala-Korpela

  5. Computational Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oulu and Biocenter Oulu, Oulu, Finland

    Mika Ala-Korpela

  6. NMR Metabolomics Laboratory, School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland

    Mika Ala-Korpela

Authors
  1. Michael V. Holmes
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  2. Mika Ala-Korpela
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Correspondence to Michael V. Holmes or Mika Ala-Korpela.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Holmes, M.V., Ala-Korpela, M. What is ‘LDL cholesterol’?. Nat Rev Cardiol 16, 197–198 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41569-019-0157-6

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