The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in collaboration with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), maintains a Lipid Standardization Program (LSP) called "CDC-NHLBI LSP." The LSP provides accuracy-based standards for measuring total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) in U.S. and international lipid laboratories

The LSP is unique among external quality-control systems (EQAS) in that it provides a way to establish, assess, and improve the accuracy—or trueness—of analytical measurements over time. The LSP provides traceability to CDC's reference methods for the measurement of TC, TG, and HDL-C. In this way, the LSP standardizes the resulting measured values of these lipids and lipoproteins no matter what analytical system is used. Measurement standardization ensures the credibility of results and valid comparability among different population studies and clinical trials. The CDC-NHLBI LSP is not a proficiency testing (PT) program, in which performance assessment often is based on peer group means, not on true accuracy points,.

To fulfill its commitment to improve the measurement of risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease, CDC focuses on two core activities:

• Maintaining a high-quality lipid reference method laboratory.
• Offering standardization services to domestic and international research laboratories.

CDC's assistance to research laboratories that measure lipid and lipoproteins in clinical investigations and studies has had a major positive impact on the quality of analytical data produced. These studies continue to provide cardiovascular medicine with a reliable scientific database for evaluating risk factors associated with heart disease. For example, information from this database led scientists to the conclusion that elevated blood cholesterol is a significant risk factor in the development of heart disease and that lowering total cholesterol prevents or delays heart disease.

Participation in the LSP helps laboratories conducting lipid research, population studies, and related clinical trials for cardiovascular disease measure select lipids and lipoproteins with the levels of accuracy and precision established by the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP). Laboratories that participate in the LSP's quarterly analytical evaluations (i.e., monitoring surveys) and meet established performance standards receive a certificate of standardization from CDC to document this achievement.