Fasting for lipid screening may be outdated. A large Canadian study of lipid subclass levels in men and women showed little variation between levels after fasting and levels without fasting. Variations in total and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels were less than 2%; in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, less than 10%; and in triglycerides, less than 20%. Based on their findings, the authors conclude that fasting to determine routine lipid levels is likely not necessary. Although they outlined several study limitations, including the use of secondary laboratory data and a lack of patient outcome data, their results support similar findings from several smaller studies. The report was published in the December 10/24, 2012, issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.