Day 252 - 20 May 96 - Page 14


     
     1        differences at all in any of the variables that were
     2        measured.  Even with 20 subjects, which is quite a
     3        reasonable number, there were no significant differences in
     4        total cholesterol--
     5
     6   MR. RAMPTON:   Can we just slow down a bit?  You are the expert,
     7        we are all lay people and we need to understand it.  That
     8        is the little table in the middle of the small print?
     9        A.  Little table, yes.
    10
    11   Q.   The first part is headed TR; what does that mean?
    12        A.   That is total cholesterol, all the different
    13        cholesterol functions.
    14
    15   Q.   And the NCEP2 is the so-called low fat is it?
    16        A.   Yes, it refers to what is thought to be a healthy diet
    17        recommended by some committee.
    18
    19   Q.   This measurement showed 115 for the so-called healthy diet
    20        and 126 for the high fat one?
    21        A.   Yes, and looking at the standard deviation that is
    22        given there, which means considerable degree of variation,
    23        there was no significant difference between the two.  If we
    24        move on to TG.
    25
    26   Q.   That is triglycerides is it?
    27        A.  Triglycerides, they are the same.  The next common is
    28        high density life protein.  Now, cholesterol in the blood
    29        is carried around predominantly on a protein which is
    30        referred to as low density life protein.  The other
    31        component is high density life protein and the terms simply
    32        refer to a laboratory procedure where you centrifuge a
    33        plasma sample and the heavier component comes out of the
    34        solution first and the lighter one is left behind.  So we
    35        can talk about low density and high density life protein.
    36        The high density life protein is the one which,
    37        simplistically, we say is the good form of cholesterol to
    38        have because of the different aspects of metabolism of
    39        cholesterol.  It is a surprise to fined that the value for
    40        HDL was, in fact, higher on the high fat diet.  I would
    41        have expected it to be lower but it was higher, but not
    42        statistically significantly higher.  So we can say again
    43        there is no difference.  As for the other two measurements,
    44        these refer to what is called apoprotein A and apoprotein
    45        B.  These are proteins that carry--
    46
    47   Q.   Excuse my interrupting, that is a 'B' not an '8' is it?
    48        A.   Yes, I know it is a very smudged copy.  Apoprotein A
    49        and apoprotein B.
    50 
    51   Q.   It is aqua? 
    52        A.   I think it is 'apo'. It was so difficult to read I 
    53        went back to the original journal to find out what it was.
    54        It is apoprotein A an B.  These are simply the proteins
    55        that carry fatty substances around in the blood because fat
    56        is not water soluble, cholesterol is not water soluble, so
    57        it has to attach itself something and that is how
    58        apoprotein A and apoprotein B are measured.
    59
    60   Q.   Does either of those measurements have any significance for

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