Data supporting manuscript "Cell-free, high-density lipoprotein-specific phospholipid efflux assay predicts incident cardiovascular disease."

A high-density lipoprotein function assay predicts cardiovascular disease risk

Levels of HDL-cholesterol and total cholesterol are typically used to calculate the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD), but these measures are imperfect. Assessing HDL function in removing excess lipids that accumulate in arterial lesions may be a better way to predict CAD, but current approaches to measure this function require specialized techniques and sample preparation and cannot be applied in a routine clinical setting. IMasaki Sato, Edward Neufeld and colleagues developed an assay to measure HDL-specific phospholipid efflux based on the binding of endogenous plasma apoA-I and other exchangeable apolipoproteins to artificial lipid-donor particles. In three clinical cohorts, this assay detected associations between efflux function and CAD even after adjustment for other measures of HDL,and could be used to predict coronary artery plaque burden. This assay is amenable to automation and thus could be applied as a routine diagnostic test.