US versus Australia
- alternative units of measurement for cholesterol
- alternative units of measurement for cholesterol
HDL, LDL or Total Cholesterol
200mg/dl Total Cholesterol divided by 39 = 5.1 mmol/l Total Cholesterol
5.1mmol/l TC multiplied by 39 = 200mg/dl TC
5.1mmol/l TC multiplied by 39 = 200mg/dl TC
Triglycerides
150mg/dl of triglycerides divided by 89 = 1.68mmol/l
1.68mmol/l of triglycerides multiplied by 89 = 150mg/dl
..of course, these units are shown as an example
Measuring cholesterol in your blood is done by determining the concentration of cholesterol in a blood sample taken from you
There are two different ways to describe a concentration.
Method One:
The first way is by weight....as in....how many milligrams of
cholesterol are in a known amount of liquid. In this case a deciliter
of your blood.
A deciliter is one tenth of a liter....a small cup of coffee would contain about one deciliter.
Don't worry...if you've never had a cholesterol test done....they don't take a whole deciliter!
If you live in the United States, then your cholesterol level results
will be expressed in milligrams per deciliter on your lab report.
It will show on your lab results like this ..
Example: Total cholesterol 200mg/dL...which means there is 200mg of cholesterol in total..present in one deciliter of your blood.
Method Two:
The second way to express a concentration is by molecular count. This is measured in units called Moles.
If you ever took chemistry then that unit shouldn't be a total mystery to you! If you didn't take chemistry...that's ok...you don't need to understand the technicalities! ...as long as you know what you are looking at when you get your lab results and understand what a safe cholesterol level is...that's what matters!
Many countries outside of the United States use method two to express their cholesterol results on lab reports.
If you happen to live in the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia or New Zealand...among others...then your cholesterol level on your lab results will be expressed as millimoles per liter of blood.
It will look like this on your report.
Example: Total cholesterol 5.1mmol/l
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