Fasting makes little difference to results of lipid tests

Fasting before routine lipid level tests might be unnecessary, suggests a study that found that fasting time had little association with lipid subclass levels in a large population.

The researchers, from Calgary in Alberta, Canada, looked at the relationship between fasting duration and lipid test results over a six month period in 2011 in 209 180 people.

They found that among average cholesterol levels the mean levels of total cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) differed little among …