Abstract
Fasting for > 8 hours has traditionally been considered the standard to ensure the accuracy of blood lipid testing. However, the actual "fasting" period only accounts for a small part of the daily live, making us wonder about the meaning of fasting versus non-fasting lipid profile. Studies have shown that non-fasting lipid profile has equivalent or even better than the fasting test. Many clinical guidelines today recommend the use of non-fasting lipid profile for monitoring purposes except in certain specific cases such as patients with a history of elevated triglycerides or triglycerides level > 4.5 mmol/L.