Improved enzymatic determination of total cholesterol in tissues.

In this improved method for rapid enzymatic determination of total cholesterol, the lipid extracts from tissues are dissolved in an equal volume of peroxide-free dioxane/isopropanol (50/50 by vol) solution, and are reacted directly with the aqueous enzymatic reagent, without further treatment. The presence of organic solvents, such as dioxane and isopropanol, does not interfere with enzymatic activity. This simpler procedure eliminates the tedious solubilization of tissue lipid extracts into an aqueous medium. The method is reproducible, and results correlate well with those by a chemical (FeCl3/H2SO4) method.