Affiliations: Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt Epidemiology
Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer
Center, Nashville, TN, USA | Department of Epidemiology, Shanghai Cancer Institute,
Shanghai, P.R. China | Department of Pathology, Vanderbilt University Medical
Center, Nashville, TN, USA
Note: [] Corresponding author: Xiao-Ou Shu, M.D., Ph.D., Professor,
Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center, 2525 West End Avenue,
Suite 600, Nashville, TN 37203-1738, USA. Tel.: +1 615 936 0713; Fax: +1 615
936 8291; E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: The reliability and stability of plasma lipid biomarkers and their
association with dietary fat intake were evaluated among 48 subjects who were
randomly chosen from the participants of a validation study of the
population-based cohort, the Shanghai Men's Health Study (SMHS). Four spot
blood samples, one taken each season, were measured for total cholesterol,
triglyceride, HDL-cholesterol, and LDL-cholesterol levels. The reliability and
stability of these measurements were assessed by intraclass correlation
coefficients (ICC) and by the correlations between a randomly chosen
measurement with the mean of measurements across seasons using a bootstrap
approach. The median levels for total cholesterol, triglycerides,
HDL-cholesterol, and LDL-cholesterol were 177.5, 164.5, 41.0, and 102.5
(mg/dl), respectively. The ICCs of the biomarkers ranged from 0.58
(LDL-cholesterol) to 0.83 (HDL-cholesterol). The correlation between randomly
chosen spot measurements and the mean measurement were 0.91, 0.86, 0.93, and
0.83 for total cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL-cholesterol, and
LDL-cholesterol, respectively. The correlations of lipid biomarkers with
dietary fat intake and other lifestyle factors were comparable to other
previous reports. In conclusion, this study suggests that measurements of lipid
biomarkers from a single spot blood sample are a good representation of the
average blood levels of these biomarkers in the study population and could be a
useful tool for epidemiological studies.
