Day 252 - 20 May 96 - Page 26
1
2 Q. Yes, I thought it was ten but it may not matter?
3 A. Well, let us say it was ten. That does not mean that
4 the range is 155, going from 145 to 165.
5
6 Q. I see.
7 A. The range, in fact, is much greater than that. This
8 measurement here is a standard deviation which is arrived
9 at by a very complicated mathematical procedure, but it is
10 not simply a range of values. So that a standard
11 deviation, if we looked at the figure I quoted earlier, 9.7
12 plus or minus 7.5 you could have a range of values from 2
13 to 18 which would give you a standard deviation of 7.5.
14 So, a high standard deviation like this indicates a huge
15 spread of values. In other words, the 5 subjects were
16 behaving in very different ways.
17
18 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is 20 I think, in that one?
19 A. Yes. Yes, that was in the other study there. We have
20 moved on to the second one now.
21
22 MS. STEEL: The table is of measurements made after both groups
23 had been given a high fat meal?
24 A. Well, it is the same -- wait a minute, the table
25 itself refers to what are called baseline measurements.
26 The 20 subjects were all given the sensible diet and then
27 measurements of blood lipids were made and these other ones
28 that are in the table. They were then, after that, given
29 the high fat diet. They do not tell us what interval
30 elapsed between the two. I have to assume that one study
31 immediately followed the other but, I mean, one could have
32 been conducted in the middle of summer and one in the
33 middle of winter on the same 20 subjects. It is probably
34 unlikely, but we simply do not know what is in the paper.
35
36 So, the same 20 people were subjected to the two dietary
37 treatments one after another and before they were given
38 this dose of fat a blood sample was taken and these are the
39 measurement that we see here. So, these measurements are
40 the response to having been on a healthy diet or a high fat
41 diet for a month, and I am surprised that there are not
42 greater differences, but the differences are very small and
43 they are not statistically significant.
44
45 Q. So you, from your reading, think that these measurements
46 were taken before they were given the oral fat load?
47 A. Yes, that is what it says in the paper. That these
48 were the baseline values. What happened after that is
49 stated underneath there, and they only consider one of the
50 variables which is the triglycerides factor. As I said
51 before, changes in triglycerides were not thought to be
52 involved in the atherogenic process and that is why in the
53 COMA report they are not mentioned.
54
55 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Can we just pause for a moment. I would
56 like to look at that again.
57
58 MS. STEEL: I think the witness is wrong.
59
60 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have just looked at Dr Miller's letter
