A Comparison of the Phosphotungstate Magnesium Precipitation and Heparin-Manganese Precipitation Procedures for Estimating High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol

The phosphotungstate-MgCl₂ method for precipitating very low density and low density lipoproteins from plasma precipitates up to about 7 % of high density lipoprotein.

The heparin-MnCl₂ method, used at a final MnCl₂ concentration of 0092 mol/l, does not seem to precipitate any high density lipoprotein but precipitates essentially all apolipoprotein B containing very low density and low density lipoprotein.

When the final concentration of MnCl₂ is 0046 mol/l, precipitation of apolipoprotein B containing very low density and low density lipoprotein is frequently incomplete.

The herapin-MnCl₂ method, when the MnCl₂ final concentration is 0·092 mol/l, is the preferred method for high density lipoprotein cholesterol measurement if the cholesterol assay is unaffected by either heparin or MnCl₂. High density lipoprotein cholesterol results, using this method, are higher than with the phosphotungstate MgCl₂ method and lower than with the heparin MnCl₂ method when the MnCl₂ final concentration is 0·046 mol/l.