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The University of Chicago Medicine Laboratories

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Specimen Collection and Handling

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Mayo Clinic Laboratories

Test Code HDL High Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol

Specimen and Container/Tube

Specimen Type: Plasma

Preferred Specimen: Li-Heparin Mint Green Top

Other Acceptable specimens: Serum/Gold Top, Serum/Red Top

Specimen Stability

Storage Temperature

Stability

Room temperature

 72 hours

Refrigerated

7 days

Frozen (-15 to -25°C)

Frozen (-70°C)

3 months

24 months

Collection Instructions

Collect specimen per standard laboratory collection procedures. 

 

Specimen Handling and Transport Instructions

UCMC Onsite Instructions: 

Collect specimen per standard collection procedure and send to laboratory immediately. 

 

UCMC Offsite and UC MedLab Outreach Instructions: 

  • Samples should be centrifuged within 2 hours of collection.
  • Centrifuge specimens at >2500 x g for 10 minutes at room temperature.
  • Aliquot sample into plastic transport tube containing a minimum of 0.2 mL of specimen.
  • Samples must be sent room temperature at 15-25oC.

Rejection Criteria

  • Common specimen rejected situations include: incorrect specimen type, insufficient volume, missing or incomplete specimen identifiers, incorrect specimen transport, or specimens outside stability limits. 
  • Specimens that are clotted or grossly hemolyzed.
  • Specimens that were transported unspun/whole blood and draw time is greater than 6 hours.

Reference Values

Test

Age

Sex

Reference Range

HDL Cholesterol

All

All

40 - 80 mg/dL

Note: Reference range based on in-house studies, recommendations from Tietz Textbook of Clinical Chemistry, and Roche product literature. Reference ranges for cholestrol are based on a general adult patient population. Cholesterol levels vary with age, sex and race.

Critical Values

Analyte

Unit

Low

High

Age

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Turnaround Time

Turnaround times are relative to the time the specimen is received in the test laboratory. 

 

STAT Turnaround Time: Not available as STAT test

Routine Turnaround Time: 4 hours

Testing Schedule: 24/7

Clinical Indications

High-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) is associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease. Excess cholesterol is actively pumped into HDL to be carried in the blood circulation and cleared by the liver in a process known as reverse cholesterol transport. For these reasons, HDL-C is often referred to as "good" cholesterol.

 

 

Test Components

HDL Cholesterol
 

Methodology

Enzymatic Colorimetric (Roche Diagnostics)

CPT Codes

83718

LOINC Codes

2085-9

Synonyms/Keyword Search

Cholesterol, HDL (High Density Lipoprotein)

HDL Direct

High Density Lipoprotein, Cholesterol

HDL (High Density Lipoprotein), Cholesterol

HDL Cholesterol

Additional Information

  • HDL-C is rarely measured in isolation and most often ordered along with total cholesterol and triglycerides. Measuring HDL-C and total cholesterol enables calculation of non-HDL cholesterol (total cholesterol-HDL-C). Non-HDL cholesterol is the combination of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol  and very-low density lipoprotein cholesterol. Non-HDL cholesterol is directly associated with risk for cardiovascular disease and referred to as "bad" cholesterol.

Last Review Date

5/30/25

Volume

Preferred Volume: 0.5 mL

Minimum Volume: 0.2 mL

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