The Triglyceride/HDL Cholesterol Ratio Calculator

Developing Data Products- Class Project

Live-Healthy
date: 12/20/2014

Lipid Profile

  • A standard lipid profile includes total cholesterol, LDL-C, HDL-C and TG
  • Strong evidence available suggesting a relationship between LDL-C and the risk of coronary heart disease.
  • Lowering LDL-C using drugs like statins has become a primary goal in cardiovascular prevention.
  • However, relying on LDL-C alone can be misleading.

Triglyceride/HDL cholesterol Ratio

  • Many studies have found TG/HDL-C ratio correlates strongly with the incidence and extent of coronary heart disease (CHD).

  • A recent study found that a TG/HDL-C ratio above 4 was the most powerful independent predictor of developing coronary artery disease.

  • With the increasing prevalence of overweight, obesity and the metabolic syndrome this ratio may become even more important because high TG and low HDL-C is often associated with these disorders.

TG/HDL-C Ratio Calculator

  • We have created a simple Triglyceride/HDL Cholesterol Ratio Calculato using shiny application in Rstudio

  • We use a help-text to instruct the entry of TG and HDL values

  • After submitting these values, the TG/HDL would be calculated

  • An explanation of the ratio cut values that are associated with CHD appear below the outcome from the calculator.

TG_HDLratio Function:

  • You could see below the simple function to calculate TG/HDL-C ratio inside R.

  • This fuction has been incorporated inside the shiny application (server.R) 

TG_HDLratio <- function(TG, HDL ) {  
  TG/ HDL
} 

TG_HDLratio(150, 60)

[1] 2.5

Future Direction

  • This has been a very simple project to fulfill the requirements of Developing Data Products Class.

  • However, we plan to expand the project to create a calculator that would link Metabolic syndrome with TG/HDL-C ratio and give a better risk assessment of CHD.

Online References about TG/HDL-C ratio Calculator: