A Comparison of the Phosphotungstate Magnesium Precipitation and Heparin-Manganese Precipitation Procedures for Estimating High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol

Abstract

The phosphotungstate-MgCl2 method for precipitating very low density and low density lipoproteins from plasma precipitates up to about 7 % of high density lipoprotein. The heparin-MnCl2 method, used at a final MnCl2 concentration of 0092 mol/l, does not seem to precipitate any high density lipoprotein but precipitates essentially all apolipoprotein B containing very low density and low density lipoprotein. When the final concentration of MnCl2 is 0046 mol/l, precipitation of apolipoprotein B containing very low density and low density lipoprotein is frequently incomplete. The herapin-MnCl2 method, when the MnCl2 final concentration is 0·092 mol/l, is the preferred method for high density lipoprotein cholesterol measurement if the cholesterol assay is unaffected by either heparin or MnCl2. High density lipoprotein cholesterol results, using this method, are higher than with the phosphotungstate MgCl2 method and lower than with the heparin MnCl2 method when the MnCl2 final concentration is 0·046 mol/l.