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

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