Pseudohypertriglyceridemia from oral glycerine.

A 74 year-old Thai woman was found to have hypertriglyceridemia possibly due to an increased blood glycerol level. Her previous serum triglyceride (TG) levels were 65 and 99 mg/dl. After 2 months of taking glycerine at a dose of 50 ml orally every 8 to 12 hours for treatment of glaucoma, her serum TG concentrations increased from 77 to 1,815 and 2,693 mg/dl, but decreased rapidly to 72 and 59 mg/dl on days 3 and 6 following withdrawal of glycerine treatment. There were no other causes of hypertriglyceridemia. High blood glycerol level can interfere with enzymatic methods commonly used in the measurement of TG in most laboratories and result in falsely elevated levels of TG.