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Department

Biochemistry

Suitable Specimen Types

  • Special Collection Procedures Apply
2 mL of plasma

Specimen Transport

Transport frozen

Sample Processing in Laboratory

Usual

Sample Preparation

Centrifuge sample, separate and freeze plasma immediately

Turnaround Time

3 months

Sample Stability

Frozen

Lipoprotein Lipase (post heparin)

General Information

Lipoprotein lipase is bound to the vascular endothelial membranes, where it has access to lipids in the blood after absorption from the intestine. This lipase activity cleaves fatty acids from lipoproteins and clears chylomicrons from the blood.

Administration of the anticoagulant heparin releases these membrane-bound lipases into plasma, where they can be measured as post-heparin lipolytic activity. The release occurs within minutes of the IV heparin dose. The timing of the sample collection is important, to avoid confusion with pancreatic lipase.

Patient Preparation

Special preparations need to take place before collection of these samples. These instructions can be obtained from the Ref Lab prior to sample collection. Contact Duty Biochemist 2506 who will liaise with Reference Lab.

(Withdraw blood 12 min post heparin; 70U/kg)

Notes

DB: Special instructions for collection of samples can be obtained from Reference Lab.

Investigation of hypertriglyceridaemia; diagnosis of lipoprotein lipase deficiency

Reference Range

2-12 umol/mL/hr

Specifications

  • EQA Scheme?: No
  • EQA Status: No scheme available