Lipid panelLipid profile · Cholesterol test
A blood test reporting cholesterol fractions and triglycerides together.
A lipid panel is the standard blood test for blood fats, typically reporting total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol and triglycerides, with non-HDL cholesterol and the total to HDL ratio calculated from them.
It matters because it feeds directly into cardiovascular risk assessment and treatment decisions, and because it is cheap, widely available and often already in your medical record. Along with blood pressure and HbA1c, it is one of the few tests that reliably changes what anyone does.
LDL is the number with the causal evidence behind it. A European consensus panel assessed genetic studies, cohorts, Mendelian randomisation and randomised trials together and concluded that LDL causes atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, and lowering it reduces events.
LDL is usually calculated rather than measured directly, using an equation that becomes unreliable when triglycerides are high, which is one reason non-HDL cholesterol, or ApoB where available, is often the better number.
Fasting is less important than it once was for cholesterol, and more important for triglycerides, which rise substantially after a meal. UK practice has largely moved to non-fasting samples with a follow up fasting test if triglycerides are high.
A single panel is a snapshot with real biological and analytical variability, so decisions are usually based on repeated measurements rather than one result, and the trend over years matters more than any single line.
In practice, ask for ApoB alongside if you can, and put the whole panel into our heart age calculator rather than reacting to one number in isolation.