VANCOUVER — A new way of checking blood cholesterol levels is now in effect in British Columbia but a health-care provider says public awareness remains low about the change, even though it provides better results for doctors and is much easier on the patient.
Providence Health Care says fasting is no longer required for lipid tests to measure cholesterol.
The Canadian Cardiovascular Society adopted non-fasting guidelines for lipid tests in 2016 but the recommendation was only recently accepted by the B.C. Ministry of Health and lab requisition forms were changed at the end of last year.
An awareness campaign by Providence Health, which offers general medical care at several hospitals in Vancouver, has begun out of concern that few doctors or patients are aware of the change.
Dr. Gordon Francis, director of the Healthy Heart Program Prevention Clinic at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, says the change will have a "very large impact."
He says patients can now go straight from their doctor's office to a lab for a blood test, rather than waiting until it is convenient for them to fast for at least 12 hours.
Several other provinces including Alberta and Saskatchewan have already adopted the new guidelines, which have been in use in Denmark since 2009 and in the United Kingdom since 2014.
Francis says there is strong evidence that results from non-fasting lipid tests are more useful.
"The non-fasting results are better predictors of heart attack, stroke and total mortality when compared to fasting results," he said in a news release on Friday.
The blood tests of non-fasting patients also capture other harmful lipids that are present after eating, but not when fasting, he said, adding that the new method also no longer requires a period of abstinence from alcohol.
Non-fasting tests are also safer for patients with conditions such as diabetes, because going without food can cause a drop in blood sugar levels, the release says.
More than 1.2 million partial and full lipid profiles are done each year in British Columbia, says Providence Health.