About the Test
Purpose of the test
The lipid panel helps evaluate cardiovascular health by analyzing cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood. Too much of either can build up in the blood vessels and arteries, damaging them and heightening the risk of vascular problems. Because high cholesterol usually has no symptoms, testing is important.
A lipid panel can be ordered for several reasons:
- Diagnosis: Testing lipid levels can be part of diagnosing other medical conditions, such as fatty liver disease.
- Screening: This is routine testing to determine whether your cholesterol is normal or falls into a borderline-, intermediate-, or high-risk category.
- Monitoring: If you have abnormal results from earlier testing or other risk factors for heart disease, lipid testing can help monitor your cholesterol or triglyceride levels.
- Measuring response to treatment: If you have been told to make lifestyle changes or take cholesterol medications, a lipid panel can evaluate your response to treatment.
What does our Lipid Panel test measure?
Lipids are types of fat molecules in the blood. Cholesterol and triglycerides are two important types of lipids that are carried inside particles called lipoproteins.
The lipid panel analyzes your blood to measure different types of lipids:
- Total cholesterol: This measures your overall cholesterol level.
- Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol: This type of cholesterol, known as “bad cholesterol,” can collect in blood vessels and increase your risk of cardiovascular disease.
- High-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol: This type of “good cholesterol” helps reduce the buildup of cholesterol.
- Triglycerides: Excess amounts of this type of fat are associated with cardiovascular disease and pancreatic inflammation.
While these are the principal measurements in the standard lipid panel, some versions of the test may report additional measurements.
When should I get this test?
There are a number of circumstances in which it is appropriate to get a lipid panel test. Depending on the medical context, the test may be used for screening, diagnosis, or monitoring.
Screening
Screening is the process of identifying a health problem before any immediate signs or symptoms appear. The lipid panel can be used to identify if you are at high risk of cardiovascular disease before you develop problems.
Most major health organizations recommend that adults aged 20 or older begin cholesterol screening in early adulthood. For people with no known risk factors, cholesterol levels are often checked every four to six years; however, the frequency of testing can vary depending on your age, overall health, and personal risk factors for heart disease.
Your healthcare provider may recommend more frequent testing if you have risk factors such as:
- A personal history of high cholesterol
- A family history of early heart disease
- Diabetes or prediabetes
- High blood pressure
- Smoking
- Being overweight or obese
- An unhealthy diet or low levels of physical activity
These factors can all impact your cholesterol levels.
Adults between the ages of 40 and 75 are often evaluated for their overall risk of cardiovascular disease using cholesterol levels along with other health factors such as blood pressure, diabetes status, and smoking history. In these cases, lipid testing may be performed more regularly to help guide treatment decisions.
Children and adolescents may also be screened for high cholesterol. Experts commonly recommend that all children have their cholesterol checked once between the ages of 9 and 11 and again between the ages of 17 and 21. Earlier or more frequent testing may be recommended for children with obesity, diabetes, or a family history of inherited cholesterol disorders such as familial hypercholesterolemia.
Follow-up testing is generally continued at least every few years, depending on test results and risk assessment.
Monitoring
The lipid panel is frequently used for ongoing monitoring of cardiovascular risk after a person has had high cholesterol on a prior test or after a previous cardiac event like a heart attack or stroke.
In many cases, if you are at higher risk of cardiovascular problems, adopting lifestyle changes such as a healthy diet, exercising more, quitting smoking, managing stress, maintaining a healthy weight, and monitoring blood pressure are possible steps. Taking medications under a physician’s care can help reduce that risk. A lipid panel may be used to monitor your response to treatment and adjust the treatment plan as necessary.
Diagnosis
While most lipid tests are used for screening or monitoring, abnormal lipid levels may also help doctors identify or monitor conditions that affect metabolism, such as hypothyroidism, kidney disease, or pancreatitis.
Finding a Lipid Panel Test
How to get tested
A lipid panel is ordered by your doctor or other authorized health practitioner and obtained with a blood draw in a doctor’s office, lab, medical clinic, or hospital. The blood sample is then sent to a laboratory for analysis.
In some instances, point-of-care lipid testing can be performed in a doctor’s office, clinic, or even at health fairs. This involves obtaining a drop of blood from your finger, which is immediately analyzed by a small device.
Can I take the test home?
Using a commercial kit, you can take a small blood sample: you prick your finger, put a small drop of blood on a piece of filter paper, and send it to a laboratory for analysis.
Cholesterol testing is routine and reliable. Careful laboratory procedures help ensure dependable test results when proper test procedures and preparation are followed, including fasting when needed; thus, false-positive or false-negative results are rare.
Point-of-care lipid testing, performed on-site rather than in a laboratory, may show greater variability than laboratory testing but still provides a meaningful reference point for cholesterol measurement. When point-of-care or at-home tests show abnormal lipid levels, follow-up testing is often recommended in a certified laboratory. Online lipid panel tests are available with local lab testing.
How much does the test cost?
The cost of a lipid panel depends on where the test is performed and whether you have insurance coverage.
When prescribed by a doctor, this type of bloodwork is normally covered by insurance, but you may still have costs for a copay or deductible. There can also be fees for the phlebotomy procedure. Check with your doctor and insurance plan about the cost of the test.
Taking a Lipid Panel Test
The lipid panel requires a blood sample.
- For laboratory testing, the blood sample is drawn from your vein with a needle and sent to a lab.
- For point-of-care and at-home testing, blood is drawn from your fingertip.
Before the test
For laboratory lipid testing, you typically must fast for 9-12 hours before your blood is drawn. This means not eating or drinking anything other than water before the test.
In some cases, lipid testing without fasting is possible, but ask your doctor’s office in advance about whether you need to fast and always follow any pre-test instructions you are given.
During the test
In most lipid tests, a blood sample is taken with a needle inserted into a vein in your arm. Before your blood is drawn, an elastic band is tied around your upper arm to increase blood in the veins, and the puncture location is wiped clean with an antiseptic.
A needle blood draw may cause a temporary sting. The blood draw normally lasts for less than a minute.
Sometimes a drop of blood is collected by puncturing the skin on a fingertip. This fingerstick sample is used when a lipid panel is being measured on a portable testing device, for example, at a pharmacy or health fair. It involves a quick sting but little pain or bleeding.
After the test
After blood is drawn from a vein, a cotton swab and/or adhesive bandage is placed over the puncture site. You will normally be instructed to keep this in place for an hour or more to prevent any unwanted bleeding.
This is a routine outpatient procedure, and you can typically drive and return to basic activities as soon as the test is over. If fasting was required, you may want to bring something to eat right after the test. You may be advised to restrict intense exercise or physical activity for a few hours after the test.
Fingerstick cholesterol tests do not usually require any special post-test restrictions.
Lipid Panel Test Results
Receiving test results
When a blood sample for a lipid test is taken with a needle, lab analysis is usually completed and available within a few days. Your results may be sent to you in the mail or made accessible through an online health portal. Your doctor’s office may also contact you about your results. A follow-up appointment may be recommended to review your results and any necessary next steps.
Point-of-care and at-home tests provide results within a few minutes.
Interpreting test results
The results of your lipid panel are reported for each type of cholesterol and triglycerides. These are measured in milligrams per deciliter of blood (mg/dL).
The optimal or target level for each part of the standard lipid test are listed below:
- Total cholesterol: Below 200 mg/dL
- HDL (good) cholesterol: Above 60 mg/dL
- LDL (bad) cholesterol: Below 100 mg/dL (For people with diabetes: Below 70 mg/dL)
- Triglycerides: Below 150 mg/dL
Values that do not meet these targets may be classified as borderline-, intermediate-, or high-risk. In general, higher-than-target levels of total cholesterol, LDL, and triglycerides and lower-than-target levels of HDL can heighten the risk of cardiovascular problems.
Test results are interpreted in the context of your overall health and other risk factors. Many doctors use special risk calculators that incorporate your test results, age, and other factors to determine the most appropriate next steps.
Continued cholesterol monitoring, lifestyle changes, and/or medications may be recommended to lower cholesterol and decrease cardiovascular risk, but there is not a universal consensus about when these types of interventions are optimal.
Cholesterol-lowering medications, such as a class of drugs called statins, are most likely to be recommended for patients with very high LDL or elevated LDL combined with other risk factors such as diabetes or past cardiovascular problems.
Abnormally low levels of cholesterol are rare and usually associated with a health condition causing malnutrition.
If you have risk factors for heart disease or abnormal lipid levels, repeat testing may be conducted at regular intervals in the future. Your doctor can recommend a schedule for future testing.
If your lipid levels are normal, you may not need repeat testing for another five years unless your overall health or risk factors change.
In some cases, other types of cholesterol testing, such as direct LDL testing, may be needed if you have high levels of triglycerides. While not included in the standard lipid panel, expanded lipid measurements, such as LDL particle testing, may be ordered. Additional types of tests, such as a cardiac stress test, may also be considered as part of an overall cardiovascular risk assessment.
If you take a point-of-care or at-home test that shows abnormal cholesterol levels, it is common to have follow-up testing done by a laboratory.
When reviewing your test results with your doctor, some questions that may be helpful include:
- What are my risk factors for cardiovascular disease?
- What do my test results show about my cardiovascular health?
- Have my lipid levels changed over time?
- Do I need any follow-up tests? When should I have another cholesterol test?
- Are any treatments recommended based on my test results? What are my treatment options and their benefits and risks?