Blood chylesis: concept, causes of lipemia, manifestations, dangers, treatment

Characteristics of the condition

Chilean blood - what is it and what causes it? We ask every patient who receives such a diagnosis.

Typically, blood serum is a liquid with a clear or slightly yellowish tint. But if there are certain irregularities, it acquires a more viscous consistency and a dense white color (when divided into fractions).

This condition is called plasma cholesterol.

Deviations can only be detected using biochemical analysis, since by interaction with various reagents it is possible to determine which compounds are present in the blood and in what quantities.

Practice shows that this pathology is diagnosed in both men and women, regardless of age.

The danger of this disorder is that it cannot isolate individual components of the blood, making it impossible to perform various tests. It should also be taken into account that “fat” blood is not used as donor blood.

Causes of pathology

Before determining a treatment regimen, it is necessary to understand what causes the pathology and try to eliminate the original source as quickly as possible.

In most cases, chiles are the result of poor nutrition. If the patient's diet is based on foods saturated with fat, triglycerides will enter the plasma from these compounds and their amount will continue to increase.

Fats, which form the basis of vegetable oils, form glycerol and fatty acids during processing. These compounds are absorbed by the small intestine and passed into fat tissue, but a small portion also enters the bloodstream.

Triglyceride levels change throughout the day.

The maximum value is observed 20-30 minutes after eating, and after 10-12 hours the concentration of triglycerides drops.

To obtain reliable results and accurately determine the content of fatty components in a blood test, it is recommended to carry out the test in the morning on an empty stomach.

Blood cholesterol in adults and children is more often the result of the adverse effects of factors such as:

• Diseases accompanied by metabolic disorders (diabetes mellitus, thyroid dysfunction, obesity).
• Kidney and liver problems. Bedsores are common in men and women who suffer from alcoholism. In addition, the disease is often diagnosed with renal failure and cirrhosis of the liver.
• Dysfunction of the lymphatic system.
• Genetic disorders of lipid metabolism. The main feature of this pathology is an increase in the level of neutral fats.

As medical practice shows, the most common reason for such a diagnosis is ignoring the doctor’s recommendations when preparing for the analysis.

If two days before taking the biomaterial a person consumes fatty and spicy foods, eggs, bananas, smoked meats and alcoholic drinks, the likelihood that the test result will be unreliable exceeds 40%. Excessive consumption of such foods always leads to excessive accumulation of lipids.

In addition, cholesis is often a consequence of the manifestation of diseases such as:

• Circulatory system disorders - cerebral ischemia, cerebral vascular thrombosis, heart attack, atherosclerosis;
• problems with the musculoskeletal system;
• blood clotting disorders;
• Down syndrome;
• acute and chronic pancreatitis;
• too much calcium in the body (hypercalcemia).

“Children’s” blood tests: how to avoid retakes

Testing a child's blood is a difficult test for parents. And not many people know that improper preparation can make all efforts in vain. Why is preparation so important? And how to avoid distorted results?

Why on an empty stomach?

In the recommendations for most blood tests you can see the word “at least 3 hours after eating.” And that's why.

1. Eating triggers many biochemical processes, including the release of immune cells. Therefore, even a routine general blood test should not be taken on a full stomach, so as not to get “falsely high” leukocytes.

Not to mention biochemical (glucose, cholesterol, total protein) and hormonal studies.

2. Eating food, especially fatty, fried and smoked food before and the day before the test, changes the physicochemical properties of the serum, in particular its transparency and optical density.

Increased whey turbidity:

• firstly, it complicates the search and binding of the desired analyte in the material, and therefore distorts the results;
• and secondly, too many lipids in the blood can provoke chylosis (turbidity of the serum), in which the determination of certain substances is impossible.

For this reason, it is recommended that absolutely all tests be taken at an interval after eating:

• for children under 2 years of age - closer to the next feeding, but not less than 2-3 hours of fasting,
• from 2 to 14 years (inclusive) – at least 6-8 hours.

How about water

Few people know, but tea, coffee or juice are food for the body, not water. And therefore, mild dehydration is quite widespread.

At the same time, even a slight deficiency of fluid in the body leads to “thickening” of the blood. This not only complicates the sampling procedure itself, but leads to distortion of some results.

So, in the same general blood test, red blood cells, hemoglobin and platelets may be elevated, which can mask a mild degree of anemia and other diseases. And in some cases, such results may require a retake or additional studies to exclude serious pathologies.

Thus, the drinking regime before tests is no less important than the food intake. Therefore, water can and should be drunk as usual, especially in hot weather and dry microclimate in the house.

Stress is no friend to analysis

We are talking primarily about the effect of stress on vascular tone and blood clotting.

For example, a strong cry from a child during blood collection not only complicates the procedure itself due to spasm of small vessels, but can also lead to the formation of clots in the material and its unsuitability for analysis.

Among other things, cortisol (the stress hormone) significantly changes many biochemical (especially glucose) parameters. Therefore, maximum psychological support for the child both at the preparation stage and during collection is as important as drinking and eating regimens.

And in order to minimize the child’s stress level, you can get tested in your usual home environment, using the service of a nurse visiting your home.

Symptoms

Independent suspicion of blood cholysis is almost impossible, since in 95% of cases this disorder does not affect the patient and no specific symptoms are observed. These disorders are usually detected by chance during an external examination.

In medical practice, patients extremely rarely complain of such abnormalities as plasma chylosis:

From the above it follows that the manifestation of ailments is very similar to obesity and kidney disease.

Symptoms

Detection of chyle is a matter of chance

There are no specific symptoms with chyle. This condition is usually determined by chance during analysis. At the same time, when disorders of fat metabolism appear, manifestations that are characteristic of obesity, liver diseases, and thyroid gland may occur. At the same time, it is precisely because of them that the patient seeks medical help, and chylosis is detected by chance. There is no specific test for this blood condition.

How is chylosis detected?

Detection of deviations from the norm is possible only with the help of a biochemical blood test. Other laboratory diagnostic methods are less reliable.

It is recommended to donate blood in the morning on an empty stomach. 24 hours before collection, the patient is advised to adhere to a proper diet, avoid fatty and fried foods, and alcoholic beverages.

In addition, before the analysis it is recommended to avoid taking medications, since drugs of certain pharmacological categories can also lead to unreliable results.

Treatment methods

Despite the fact that blood chylosis is not a disease and is not life-threatening, like any other ailment, it requires timely treatment.

Regardless of whether the pathology was detected in a child or an adult, therapy is prescribed only after the attending physician determines what is the primary source of the disorder. Otherwise, the positive effect will not last long, and after the end of chiles therapy it will return to action.

In the fight against this deviation, drug therapy has proven itself very well, as well as adherence to a special diet.

Drug therapy

In order to eliminate pathology as soon as possible, the approach must be comprehensive. Most therapists prescribe drugs to patients from several pharmacological categories:

• Antioxidants. Prevents the formation of fatty deposits in the vascular area.
• Fibrates. Medicines from this group normalize metabolic processes and support the elimination of cholesterol.
• Use of nicotinic acid. This substance has a pronounced anti-sclerotic effect, prevents the production of fatty acids, and also removes cholesterol.

Patients are required to take medications that normalize liver function.

Nutritional Features

If elevated serum lipid levels are detected, a special diet is an important part of treatment.

To quickly restore indicators to normal, the following foods should be excluded from the diet:

• fatty meat (regardless of how it is cooked);
• baked goods, cookies, various sweets (marshmallows, jams, gingerbreads, candies);
• High fat dairy products;
• eggs;
• alcohol.

The basis of the diet should now be vegetables and fruits, sea and river fish and grain products.

The patient is advised to pay attention to citrus fruits, ripe tomatoes and eggs. Using a diet will help to normalize your well-being as soon as possible, as well as improve the condition of the whole body.

Folk remedies

If the patient does not want to take prescribed medications, he can eliminate the problem with folk remedies, but the treatment in this case will be longer.

Fans of alternative medicine recommend eating as much garlic, cranberry compote, flaxseed oil and barley as possible.

This therapy is completely safe and can be performed even during pregnancy.

Drinking mineral water with the addition of a small amount of fresh lemon juice has proven to be an excellent way to combat pinching. The liquid can be drunk daily in unlimited quantities.

Treatment

To cope with chylosis, it is necessary to identify and eliminate its cause. Individual therapy is also aimed at preventing possible complications and preventing further progression of the process.

• Diet therapy
  is the basis of therapeutic measures, because food is the source of fats entering the body. With proper nutrition, you can reduce the content of simple lipids in the blood. Fatty meat and fish, baked goods, eggs, confectionery delicacies, alcohol, marinades, and smoked meats are excluded from the diet of patients. It is necessary to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, berries, herbs, fish, seafood, cereals, beans, and nuts. Products of plant origin contain many vitamins and fiber, which improves fat metabolism. Tomatoes, pomegranates, oranges, and spices have a beneficial effect on blood composition. A diet for chylosis involves replacing high-calorie and fat-containing foods with dishes with healthy ingredients. Nutritionists recommend eating stewed, boiled and steamed foods, completely excluding fried foods. It is better to replace coffee and tea with juices and compotes, simple mineral water. Strict adherence to the diet quickly normalizes the general condition and increases the effectiveness of complex treatment.

• Medications
  intended for the treatment of chylosis improve the functioning of internal organs and normalize metabolism.
• To thin thick blood,
  patients need to follow a certain drinking regime - drink as much liquid as possible, unless there are contraindications for health reasons.
• Hirudotherapy
  is an excellent way to cleanse the blood, make it more fluid, strengthen the walls of blood vessels and increase systemic blood flow. With the help of leeches, you can significantly lower cholesterol levels, saturate tissues with oxygen and improve the permeability of capillaries. The enzymes found in their saliva have a general strengthening effect.
• Sports exercises
  and long walks will help cope with this problem. A healthy and active lifestyle without smoking and alcohol speeds up the healing process of patients.
• Folk remedies
  that allow you to “cleanse” the blood are garlic-dill tincture, raspberry-currant tea, flaxseed oil, meadowsweet infusion, cranberry juice.

Diet therapy, medications and folk remedies must be used in combination in order to obtain a lasting and effective result as quickly as possible.

Medicines used to treat chylosis:

1. Antioxidants that improve blood supply to vital organs, inhibit oxidative reactions and reduce the risk of deposition of fatty components on the walls of blood vessels - Actovegin, Mildronate, Riboxin;
2. Fibrates that accelerate the excretion of triglycerides and lower the concentrations of certain categories of lipids in biological fluids - “Clofibrate”, “Fenofibrate”;
3. Statins that regulate cholesterol status and have a hypolipidemic effect - “Lovastatin”, “Cardiostatin”;
4. Hepatoprotectors that restore liver function - “Phosphogliv”, “Essentiale”;
5. B vitamins and “Nicotinic acid”, which normalize lipid metabolism, promote the synthesis of semi-saturated acids and the removal of cholesterol compounds from the body;
6. "Metformin", which regulates the lipid profile of the blood plasma, reducing the content of triglycerides and cholesterol.

To determine the effectiveness of the treatment, it is necessary to resubmit the biomaterial for examination after a course of therapeutic treatment.

photo: patient's blood before and after treatment

Possible complications and preventive measures

The main danger of plasma chylosis is that this disease interferes with blood tests, which are necessary for diagnosing various diseases.

It should also be remembered that “fatty” blood is often a consequence of serious diseases, so this disorder should not be ignored.

To minimize the likelihood of developing this disease, doctors advise patients to lead an active lifestyle and eat right, but there are no specific preventive measures.

If the test shows blood chylosis, do not panic. It is likely that such a diagnosis is the result of ignoring the doctor’s recommendations before taking a blood test.

To accurately determine the clinical picture, it is necessary to conduct a second analysis, only after which it will be possible to talk about the state of health and recommendations for treatment.

How does lipemia interfere with testing?

Lipemia can interfere with blood tests in several ways:

• Increases light absorption. Because of this, the results of spectrophotometric analysis, which are used during biochemical blood tests, are distorted. The accuracy of studies that use light with a short wavelength suffers especially severely. The device determines the concentrations of some substances, for example, ALT, AST, bilirubin, incorrectly.
• Lipoproteins prevent antibodies from binding to antigens. As a result, the results of immunological tests are distorted. Depending on the nature of the reaction, they can turn out to be false positive and false negative.
• Distorts the results of studies in which the method of capillary electrophoresis of whey proteins is used. For example, it was noted that when analyzing blood with lipemia, the alpha-2-globulin fraction changes.
• Leads to heterogeneity of plasma and serum after centrifugation. In a centrifuge, VLDL, due to its low density, accumulates in the upper layer. Accordingly, there will be very few substances that are soluble in water. During analysis, their concentration will be incorrectly determined as low. At the same time, steroid hormones and some drugs accumulate in the upper lipid layer, and their concentration will be low in the lower part of the tube.
• Leads to the effect of volume displacement. Normal blood plasma consists of 92% water and 8% lipids. With lipemia, these figures can be 75% and 25%, respectively. But electrolytes are dissolved only in plasma, they are not in lipids. If the laboratory uses methods that determine the level of electrolytes in the total volume (indirect potentiometry, flame photometry), then their concentration will be lower than it actually is.
• With lipemia, hemolysis occurs more strongly - the destruction of red blood cells and the release of hemoglobin from them. This also interferes with the analysis and affects its accuracy. It is not entirely clear why lipids lead to this effect; it is believed that they act on the wall of red blood cells during the processing and centrifugation of blood as detergents (surfactants).