Plasma: Lipemia

Colour legend
Example(s) of typical appearance
Example(s) of a change in appearance

Lipemia is the presence of excessive amounts of lipid particles in the blood.  Lipemia is not objectively measured. Because lipemic blood samples may interfere with infectious disease testing platforms, its presence is subjectively identified although not measured. When the presence of lipemia interferes with infectious disease testing, these units are discarded and are not distributed.  

Causes of lipemia in a plasma unit are donor related and may be related to: 

  • Fatty meals before blood donation 
  • Chronic conditions such as hypercholesterolemia 

Visual appearance 

  • Lipemia may result in a milky white appearance.