Nuclear Magnetic Resonance testing counts the number of LDL particles, contrasting with traditional lipid panels that measure LDL by weight.

“so with the NMR panel you tend to get something like LDL P which is the particle count of LDL and sometimes if you do ion mobility or other tests you also get small LDL medium LDL from that you can tell the peak size of the LDL and your LDL pattern whether your pattern a or pattern be”

“you always have a problem when you don't know what you're comparing it to so if we have gen 1 nmr which is probably still being used by lab core and quest today that is probably quite inaccurate compared to gen 2 nmr but the percentiles meaning the populations of people that were measured are still what we use to understand where someone lies it puts you in a bit of a dilemma as a clinician or as a patient you want to continually upgrade your technology in other words if you're talking about getting a new iphone you don't really care that your phone is so much better than two generations ago's phone because all your metrics are better and there's nothing to be gained by comparing yourself to how much better you are but when you're talking about diagnostics it does matter where your reference range is and if you're moving it”