Questions and Answers

Cholesterol tests

Date: 14 Mar 1997 06:27:29 -0500

259  CHOLESTEROL TESTS
I had a blood test for cholesterol, LDL, HDL, and triglycerides.  
The readings, forwarded to me by my doctor, were all in mmol/l.
Much of the (American) literature on blood cholesterol refers to
readings in mg/dl.  How do I convert each of the 4 lipid readings
from mmol/l to mg/dl?
 
ANSWERED BY NEAL PINCKNEY, PHD.
 
Cholesterol is measured outside the U.S in millimoles per liter (mm/l). 
It can be converted to U.S. measure by dividing by 0.0259. One can
convert U.S. levels to the international standard by multiplying:
millimoles/liter = 0.0259 x milligrams/deciliter (mg/dl). 
 
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