Total cholesterol
(TC)

Sample type:

serum or plasma ( heparin).

Uses:

A cholesterol test serves as a tool to assess the risk of cardiovascular disease, including heart attack and atherosclerosis.

The test enables a doctor to measure and analyze the levels of fats in the blood.

Interfering factors:

Oestrogen can reduce cholesterol levels and pregnancy increases these levels.

Pre analytic errors:

Wrong Posture during blood sampling, long duration of tourniquet application and fasting.Effect of life style, such as diet, alcohol, and caffeine.Exercise.Disease states such as infection, diabetes.

Corrective action :

Apply the right Posture during blood sampling.

Apply the proper duration of tourniquet application.

Apply the fasting

Post analytical errors:

The determination of the true mean of a lipid constituent and approaches to handling data such as the use of relative range to estimate the effect of biological variability on the computed mean value.

Corrective action:

Use the relative range to estimate the effect of biological variability on the computed mean value correctly.

Use the true mean of a lipid constituent properly.

Reference range

Below 200 mg/dL is Desirable

200-239 mg/dL is Borderline high

240 mg/dL and above is high