Enzymatic analysis of total- and HDL-cholesterol: Comparison with the standardized Liebermann-Burchard method used by the lipid research clinics program

We compared two enzymatic cholesterol methods with the standardized chemical method used in the Lipid Research Clinic's (LRC) program. The methods were used to measure total cholesterol and high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol in heparin-MnCl2 supernatants of 1812 sera collected over a 16-mth period from subjects who were sampled as part of the Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Thirty percent of the subjects had fasted for 12 h or more before venepuncture. The enzymatic total cholesterol values were 1.4-1.8% lower than the LRC method and both enzymatic methods correlated highly with the LRC method (r > 0.97). The enzymatic HDL cholesterol values were 2.4 and 6.4% higher than the LRC method, and the correlation between the enzymatic and LRC methods was > 0.93. The differences between the enzymatic and LRC methods were the same in samples from fasting and non-fasting subjects.