A simple method is described for precipitation of low density lipoproteins. The results correlate well with those from ultracentrifugation in combination with polyanion precipitation (135 +/- 35 vs 136 +/- 35, r = 0.984, n = 13) or quantitative lipoprotein electrophoresis (r = 0.9287, n = 6394). In addition to lipoprotein analysis, this method may be used for the extracorporeal elimination of plasma low density lipoproteins.