Fractional esterification rate of cholesterol and ratio of triglycerides to HDL-cholesterol are powerful predictors of positive findings on coronary angiography. Clin Chem 2003;49:1873–1880

Background: We examined the predictive value of var-ious clinical and biochemical markers for angiographi-cally defined coronary artery disease (aCAD). Specifi-cally, we assessed the value of the ratio of plasma triglyceride (TGs) to HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C) and the fractional esterification rate of cholesterol in plasma depleted of apolipoprotein B (apoB)-containing lipopro-teins (FERHDL), a functional marker of HDL and LDL particle size. Methods: Patients (788 men and 320 women) undergo-ing coronary angiography were classified into groups with positive [aCAD()] and negative [aCAD()] find-ings. Patient age, body mass index, waist circumference, blood pressure (BP), medications, drinking, smoking, exercise habits, and plasma total cholesterol (TC), LDL