Cholesterol
What it measures
A single 'cholesterol' number is rarely reported alone; a full lipid profile breaks it into LDL (often called the harmful fraction), HDL (the protective fraction) and triglycerides, each with its own pattern. India uses mg/dL; mmol/L appears on reports processed by labs following European conventions or on results from abroad.
LDL, HDL and total cholesterol
There is no single LDL number that is normal for everyone, and this is the one place where copying a generic chart does real harm. The Lipid Association of India sets the LDL target by the person's own cardiovascular risk — someone who has already had a heart attack is given a far lower target than someone with no risk factors at all, and the same LDL value can be fine for one and dangerous for the other. The Association also treats non-HDL cholesterol as a co-primary target alongside LDL, on the evidence that it predicts risk better in Indians. Which target applies to you is a calculation your doctor does from your risk factors, not a row in a table.
Source: Lipid Association of India, Consensus Statement IV (2023)
Reading it in a different unit
This lab reports Cholesterol in mg/dl. Reports from other labs — especially ones using European or US-style formatting — sometimes use a different unit for the same measurement. The relationship between them:
| Reported unit | How it relates to mg/dl |
|---|---|
| g/l | mg/dl = g/l × 100 |
| mmol/l | mg/dl = mmol/l × 38.665 |
Unit conversions verified against published molar masses and LOINC definitions. This is not a diagnostic reference — the normal range for any test is set by the laboratory that ran it and printed on your report.
Why this matters for tracking a trend
A value plotted next to earlier results only tells you something if every point is on the same scale. Two readings of the same test from two different labs, in two different units, can look like a dramatic change when nothing about your actual result changed — only the unit did. Converting to one scale before comparing is what keeps a trend line honest.
LOINC codes for this test: 14647-2, 2093-3.
General information about laboratory measurement, not medical advice. Whether a specific result is normal for you depends on your lab's reference range, your history and your doctor's judgement — not on this page.