Accuprobe Awareness

  Coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the leading causes of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Atherosclerosis often develops silently for years before presenting with angina, myocardial infarction or other cardiovascular events. Therefore, preventive health assessment should not begin only when symptoms appear. Laboratory investigations can help identify several important and potentially modifiable cardiovascular risk factors at an earlier stage. However, no single blood test can diagnose or exclude CAD in an asymptomatic individual. The value lies in interpreting a group of laboratory parameters together with age, blood pressure, family history, smoking, obesity, diabetes and other clinical factors. Lipid Profile: The Foundation of Cardiovascular Risk Assessment A lipid profile remains one of the most important laboratory investigations for cardiovascular risk assessment. It generally includes total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol (LDL-C), HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) and trigl...

The impact of alcohol consumption on different blood tests can vary depending on several factors, including the amount of alcohol consumed, individual metabolism, and the specific blood test being conducted. Heavy drinking close to the time of the blood test may have a more significant impact than moderate or light drinking earlier in the day. Here are some common blood tests and how alcohol consumption may affect them: Lipid profile: Alcohol consumption (especially excessive intake along with oily meal), can increase lipid levels, including triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, and total cholesterol in blood. While alcohol consumption doesn't have a significant direct effect on LDL cholesterol and total cholesterol, it can indirectly impact level of both by increasing triglyceride levels. It is generally recommended to avoid alcohol consumption for at least 24 hours before lipid profile tests to obtain accurate resul...

Lipemia is the increased concentration of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins in blood resulting in the cloudy/turbid appearance of serum or plasma. Lipemia in a blood specimen used for clinical evaluation can cause significant interference with obtaining accurate test values. Lipemia creates turbidity of a sample and is a result of the accumulation of lipid particles (mainly due to the presence of chylomicrons). These large particles create light scatter, resulting in elevated absorbance levels that impact colorimetric determinations. Many clinical analytes are found in the aqueous layer of plasma/serum, thus decreasing certain test values in lipemic specimens, while lipid-soluble analytes may be erroneously elevated.  Lipemia causes clinically significant interferences for level of phosphorus, creatinine, total protein, calcium etc.  Mechanism of Interference Light scattering effects may increase absorbances during end point reactions and non-blanked r...