Dr Janine Martins, a registrar in the Department of  Chemical Pathology, University of Pretoria, working with Prof Tahir Pillay has shown in research from the department that the commonly used Friedewald equation should possibly be replaced. Dr Martins analysed the data of more than 14 000 patients who had direct LDL cholesterol measurements performed at the Steve Biko hospital and concluded of 4 published equations, the Hattori equation proved to be the most robust. 

The research has just been published in Clinica Chimica Acta, a journal ranked internationally at number 2  in the field of Chemical Pathology. The paper can be viewed here.

An audio slide presentation of the publication can be viewed below