An enzymatic triglyceride method that is suitable for long-term population studies.

An enzymatic triglyceride method has been shown to be a suitable alternative to the Lipid Research Clinics' extraction/fluorometry method in long-term population studies. Correlation of results obtained with this method by this laboratory (y-axis) and by the Minneapolis Lipid Research Clinic Laboratory (x-axis) during a nine-week standardization period produced a curve with an intercept of -72 mg/liter, a slope of 1.019, and a correlation coefficient of r=0.996 (n=47). During this standardization period certain methodological problems were observed and corrected. An increase in background in certain clinical specimens, caused by spontaneous degradation of NADH, was observed, accurately measured, and taken into account when appropriate.