From: Dr. Neal Pinckney (hnl06-032.gst.aloha.net)
Subject: Re: triglyceride, should they vary from 295-205 in a few days? NT
Date: December 7, 2000 at 7:13 pm PST

In Reply to: triglyceride, should they vary from 295-205 in a few days? NT posted by lona on December 7, 2000 at 4:54 pm:

While it's certainly possible for trigyclerides to vary that much or more, depending on the amount of fat ingested, it is also possible that the test itself caused at least part of the difference.

The laboratory process to measure lipids (cholesterol, triglycerides, etc.) has a rather large margin of error, often greater than 15%. An actual reading of 250 could be seen as 212 to 288 from one test to another - from the same blood sample.

Because of this wide margin, the CDC recommends at least three test results be considered before considering therapy to reduce lipids.