Using Blood Lipid or Urine Creatinine Adjustments in the Analysis of Environmental Chemical Data

Purpose

Environmental chemical levels in urine can be expressed in two ways: per volume of urine or per gram of creatinine.  Lipophilic environmental chemical levels in serum, (for example, dioxins, furans, polychlorinated biphenyles (PCBs), and organochlorine pesticides) are also be expressed in two ways: on a whole weight basis (i.e., per whole weight of serum) and on a lipid weight basis (i.e., per gram of total lipids). This module describes the use of these measures of environmental chemicals.

Task 1: Using Blood Lipid or Urine Creatinine Adjustments

For lipid soluable chemicals, the lipid adjusted measurement is recommended because of the lipid soluable nature of these chemical compounds and their concentrations in adipose tissue. Measures of these chemicals are provided in the publicly released data sets in two ways: on a whole weight basis (i.e., per whole weight of serum) and lipid weight basis (i.e., per gram of total lipid).

• Key Concepts about Blood Lipid or Using Urine Creatinine Adjustments of Environmental Chemical Data