Fasting and Nonfasting Lipid Levels

BACKGROUND: Lipid profiles are usually measured after fasting. We tested the hypotheses that these levels change only minimally in response to normal food intake and that nonfasting levels predict cardiovascular events. METHODS AND RESULTS: We cross-sectionally studied 33 391 individuals 20 to 95 years of age from the Copenhagen General Population Study. We also studied 9319 individuals 20 to 93 years of age from the Copenhagen City Heart Study, 1166 of whom developed cardiovascular events during 14 years of follow-up. Compared with fasting levels, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, and albumin levels were reduced up to 3 to 5 hours after the last meal; triglycerides levels were increased up to 6 hours after the last meal; and non-HDL cholesterol level, apolipoprotein A1 level, apolipoprotein B level, ratio of total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol, and ratio of apolipoprotein B to apolipoprotein A1 did not change in response to normal food intake. The maximum changes after normal food and fluid intake from fasting levels were -0.2 mmol/L for total cholesterol, -0.2 mmol/L for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, -0.1 mmol/L for HDL cholesterol, and 0.3 mmol/L for triglycerides. Highest versus lowest tertile of nonfasting total cholesterol, non-HDL cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, apolipoprotein B, triglycerides, ratio of total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol, and ratio of apolipoprotein B/apolipoprotein A1 and lowest versus highest tertile of nonfasting HDL cholesterol and apolipoprotein A1 predicted 1.7- to 2.4-fold increased risk of cardiovascular events. CONCLUSIONS: Lipid profiles at most change minimally in response to normal food intake in individuals in the general population. Furthermore, nonfasting lipid profiles predicted increased risk of cardiovascular events.