Comparison of two point of care devices for capillary lipid screening in fasting and postprandial adults

The aim of this study was to assess the performance of two point of care (POC) devices for capillary lipid screening in fasting and post-prandial adults. Fasting and post-prandial capillary whole blood samples collected from 57 adult donors were analyzed simultaneously on Cholestech LDX Lipid Profile (Alere San Diego, Inc., San Diego, CA) cassettes and CardioChek Lipid Panel (Polymer Technology Systems, Indianapolis, IN) strips. Paired serum samples were collected from the same donors and analyzed with CDC-certified methods for total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and non-blanked triglycerides. Non-HDL-C (total cholesterol minus HDL-C) and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) were calculated. Mean bias between capillary whole blood and serum laboratory lipids was calculated. HDL-C measurements were not affected by triglyceride content on either device. However, both devices exhibited significant variability in triglyceride measurement relative to the reference method. Compared to reference methods, Cholestech was more accurate than CardioChek for non-HDL-C while CardioChek was more accurate for HDL-C. Among the calculated cardiovascular risk parameters (LDL-C and non-HDL-C), Cholestech-calculated non-HDL-C exhibited the least average bias in both fasting and postprandial samples. The optimal approach to capillary lipid screening may be to use Cholestech non-HDL cholesterol; as it exhibited little bias relative to CDC reference methods in both fasting and postprandial samples, facilitating lipid screening in non-fasting adults. •Two points of care devices were accessed for capillary lipid screening accuracy.•There were no differences in fasting and post-prandial capillary result accuracy.•Triglyceride content did not affect the accuracy of HDL-C results.•Cholestech was more accurate and had smaller bias than CardioChek for non-HDL-C.•Cholestech-calculated non-HDL-C may be preferred for capillary lipid screening.