title: High-density lipoprotein: what is the best way to measure its antiatherogenic potential?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  High-density lipoproteins (HDL) form a heterogeneous class of lipoproteins. HDL is routinely measured in clinical laboratories as a negative risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD) because of its potent antiatherogenic properties. The main parameter used at present to measure HDL is its cholesterol content (HDL-C).
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To describe new methods for measuring HDL that may be superior to HDL-C in predicting CHD risk.
  
  
  METHODS
  Recent publications on the measurement of HDL were reviewed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Recent experimental and epidemiologic studies indicate that the CHD predictive ability of HDL can potentially be improved by the measurement of the other contents or properties of HDL besides HDL-C. In this review, the traditional and current tests to measure HDL are discussed. New methods for the subfractionation of HDL and new compositional and functional tests for HDL that show promise in improving CHD risk prediction are also be discussed.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Health, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Lipoprotein Metabolism Section, Pulmonary and Vascular Medicine Branch, Building 10, Room 2C-433, 10 Center Dr, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA +1 301 402 9796 ; +1 301 402 1885 ; aremaley@nih.gov.
authors.forename: Alan T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Remaley
authors.forename: G Russell
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Warnick