Comparison of the Friedewald and Vujovic methods with the calculated LDL concentration in a biochemical auto-analyzer

OBJECTIVE To compare the concentration of Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL-c) obtained using the Friedewald formula with those obtained directly with the RAYTO CHEMRAY 120 autoanalyzer. METHODS Cross-sectional study. We evaluated outpatients with a medical request for a lipid profile study (total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL, and HDL). The analyses were carried out in a RAYTO CHEMRAY 120 autoanalyzer under the principle of spectrophotometry. We obtained LDL-c using the Friedewald and Vujovic formulas. RESULTS We evaluated 199 individuals whose direct LDL concentration averages were measured by the RAYTO CHEMRAY 120 equipment. Those calculated by the Friedewald and Vujovic formulas were 129.97 ± 32.66, 119.28 ± 30.44, and 127.01 ± 32.01, respectively, and in all cases, significant differences (P < 0.001) were observed with the RAYTO analyzer. In both cases a low positive bias was found with the RAYTO analyzer.. The Passing-Bablok and Deming's regressions showed a linear correlation between both methods (Friedewald and Vujovic) with the LDL values obtained with the Rayto autoanalyzer. CONCLUSIONS Our study found that the Friedewald and Vujovic methods are good predictors of LDL cholesterol levels and have a low level of bias. Therefore, they could be used as potential predictors.