Usefulness of serum total cholesterol/triglyceride ratio for predicting the presence of small, dense LDL.

OBJECTIVE We examined the usefulness of the serum total cholesterol (TC)/triglyceride (TG) and LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C)/TG ratios for predicting the presence of small, dense LDL, by comparing them with the established indicators of small, dense LDL, such as the LDL-migration index (LDL-MI) and LDL-C/Apolipoprotein B (ApoB) ratio. MATERIALS AND METHODS Fasting serum lipid was analyzed in 99 Japanese hyperlipidemic and normolipidemic subjects (34 males and 65 females, 59.4 +/- 11.9 years old). RESULTS A good negative correlation was observed between LDL-MI and log (TC/TG) (R(2) = 0.473, p < 0.0001). There was a strong positive correlation between LDL-C/ApoB and log (TC/TG) (R(2) = 0.665, p < 0.0001). Similar results were obtained using LDL-C instead of TC. Using LDL-MI > 0.4 as an indicator of small, dense LDL, the upper limit of TG was estimated to be 140-142 mg/dl. CONCLUSION TC/TG and LDL-C/TG may offer a convenient and simple clinical tool for predicting the presence of small, dense LDL. Particularly, TC/TG could be an easy-to-use indicator of small, dense LDL for general practitioners.