by EBSCO Medical Review Board

Blood tests are used to diagnose lipid disorders. The tests find the levels of:

  • Bad, good, and total cholesterol
  • Triglycerides

The results are part of a group of factors that are used to find overall heart disease risk. These include:

  • Age
  • Weight
  • Gender
  • Lifestyle habits
  • Family and health history of high cholesterol or heart disease

References

Grundy SM, Stone NJ, Bailey AL, et al. 2018 AHA/ACC/AACVPR/AAPA/ABC/ACPM/ADA/AGS/APhA/ASPC/NLA/PCNA guideline on the management of blood cholesterol. Circulation. 2018;Nov 10 [Epub ahead of print]. Available at: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000625.

How to get your cholesterol tested. American Heart Association website. Available at: https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/cholesterol/how-to-get-your-cholesterol-tested. Accessed May 24, 2019.

Hypercholesterolemia. EBSCO DynaMed Plus website. Available at:  http://www.dynamed.com/topics/dmp~AN~T114250/Hypercholesterolemia . Updated April 16, 2019. Accessed May 24, 2019.

Hypertriglyceridemia. EBSCO DynaMed Plus website. Available at:  http://www.dynamed.com/topics/dmp~AN~T115419/Hypertriglyceridemia . Updated November 28, 2018. Accessed May 24, 2019.

Revision Information

  • Reviewer: EBSCO Medical Review Board Marcin Chwistek, MD
  • Review Date: 03/2019
  • Update Date: 05/24/2019