Vitro 950 chemistry station

The sex, age (years), waist girth (cm), and BMI (kg/m²) were all assessed by an experienced clinical field nurse. Diastolic and systolic blood pressure measurements (mm Hg) were taken three times and the mean blood pressure was calculated using the last two recordings. Additionally, fasting blood samples were drawn for various lipid measures, namely HDL cholesterol (mmol/L), triglycerides (mmol/L), and total cholesterol (mmol/L) using a Vitro 950 Chemistry Station (Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, Raritan, NJ, USA) as per Liberda et al. [26 (link)]. Fasting blood glucose (mmol/L) was also assessed using the Vitros 950 (Vitros Chemistry, Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, Rochester, NY, USA) spectrophotometric assay system as per the manufacturer.

Whole blood was collected for laboratory analysis of inflammatory and lipid markers. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α), high sensitivity c-reactive protein (hs-CRP), oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL), Low-density lipoproteins (LDL), apolipoprotein-B (apo-B), and triglycerides were selected based on their biological roles in CVD.
TNF-α (R&D Systems, Minneapolis, MN), hs-CRP (BN-100 nephelmometer, Dade Behring, Deerfield, IN), and ox-LDL (Mercodia AB, Uppsala, Sweden) were assessed in blood plasma by ELISA following their respective manufacturers’ directions. Triglycerides, total cholesterol, and high-density lipoproteins (HDL) were measured on the Vitro 950 Chemistry Station (Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, Raritan, NJ) as per the manufacturer’s directions. LDL was calculated based on the subtraction of HDL from the total cholesterol measurements. Apo-B was assessed on a protein analyzer as per the manufacturer (BN ProSpec System, Dade Behring).