Day 253 - 21 May 96 - Page 30
1 A. These are substantial differences, yes.
2
3 Q. Substantial differences?
4 A. Yes.
5
6 Q. Then, finally, I would ask you to look at the tables along
7 the bottom and these are for men between 35 and 64 years
8 old. Do you see that, each one of these?
9 A. Yes.
10
11 Q. The first one is blood pressure, systolic blood pressure
12 distributions. Is that a common form of measuring blood
13 pressure?
14 A. Yes. This is the one of the measurements, yes.
15
16 Q. Expressed in millimetres of mercury; is that right?
17 A. Yes.
18
19 Q. The chart below has 3 colours in it, white, pink, and dark
20 pink; yes?
21 A. Yes.
22
23 Q. The key says that the white means that the blood pressure
24 is less than a 140; the pale pink is 140 to 159; and the
25 dark pink is 160 and over. Professor Naismith, this may be
26 an obvious question but from the point of view of the
27 health of one's arteries, one's heart, where would it be
28 preferable to be found amongst those 3 colours?
29 A. Certainly in the paler shades, yes.
30
31 Q. One notices that though we exceed the Germans somewhat for
32 our 35 to 64 year-old males, the French exceed us; do you
33 see that?
34 A. Yes.
35
36 Q. In both the pale and the dark?
37 A. Yes.
38
39 Q. Are those, so far as you are aware, significant differences
40 in the context of cardio-vascular disease?
41 A. They would be, yes.
42
43 MR. JUSTICE BELL: They may have diastolic somewhere, but
44 assuming that they do not, why do they take systolic. I
45 had always been led to believe that the raised diastolic
46 pressure was more important than raised systolic pressure
47 as a guide. Do you know?
48 A. Yes. I have always thought of it the other way round,
49 it is not a measurement I make myself but systolic blood
50 pressure is the one that is usually quoted.
51
52 MR. RAMPTON: Then in the next one 2.23, we see the cholesterol
53 distribution. Would this be serum cholesterol, cholesterol
54 in the blood?
55 A. Yes, total serum or plasma cholesterol.
56
57 Q. Again we see that we are more or less the same as the
58 Germans. Can I ask you: Is it like the blood pressure,
59 that the pinker you are, the worse you are for cholesterol?
60 A. Yes. The value above 5.2 is normally thought of as one
