Joseph T. Doyle

Distribution of triglyceride and total, LDL and HDL cholesterol in several populations: a cooperative lipoprotein phenotyping study.

Abstract Data on the distribution of triglyceride and total, LDL and HDL cholesterol are presented for age groups 40 yr and older. The populations represented came from Framingham, Albany, Honolulu, San Francisco, Evans County and Puerto Rico. They include white, Japanese and black persons and both sexes. Blood samples and lipid measurements were obtained after overnight fast by a common protocol as part of a cooperative study of lipoprotein phenotyping. Means, medians, standard deviations and 95th percentiles are given as well as intercorrelations among the various lipids. Average cholesterol levels ranged from 200 mg/dl (Puerto Rican men) to over 240 mg/dl (Framingham women). Average triglyceride levels ranged from less than 100 mg/dl (Evans County) to an average of 175 mg/dl (Japanese men). For men aged 50–69 triglyceride levels were higher in Puerto Rico than in Albany or Framingham, despite much lower levels of serum cholesterol. The 95th percentile for LDL cholesterol in age groups with at least 100 persons ranged from 196 to 209 mg/dl for men and between 221 and 228 mg/dl for women. The 95th percentile for triglyceride, however, varied greatly by age and population from as low as 249 mg/dl to as high as 451 mg/dl.

Acute hemodynamic effects of ethanol on normal human volunteers

Abstract Data on the acute hemodynamic effects of alcohol in human subjects are conflicting. In the present study there was a significant increase in the cardiac output in the 10 young normal subjects 30 minutes after the ingestion of 6 oz. of 90 proof bourbon whiskey due to an increase in the heart rate without a change in stroke volume. The arterial pressure was unchanged. Left ventricular contractility ( dP dT ) was unimpaired. Alcohol had no effect on the hemodynamic response to a work load of 100 watts for 5 minutes. These findings conflict with previous observations on middle-aged chronic alcoholics. The variability noted in these earlier observations may be due partly to the effect of age itself but more probably and importantly to subclinical cardiomyopathy in chronic alcoholics.

Postprandial lipemia in health and in ischemic heart disease ; a comparison of three indexes of fat absorption and removal and their modification by systemic heparin administration.

IT has long been recognized that patients with ischemic heart disease may exhibit abnormalities in serum lipid patterns. Although cholesterol metabolism in ischemic heart disease has received a vas...

Rationale of Venous Occlusion Plethysmography

The experimental evidence reported here supports the validity of venous occlusion plethysmography.

Risk factors in arteriosclerosis and cardiovascular disease with special emphasis on cigarette smoking.

Abstract Large international differences in mortality from the atherothrombotic diseases, notably coronary heart disease, suggest that differences in environment and lifestyle may be important. Cholesterol is the lipid characteristically found in the atheromatous plaque. Serum cholesterol concentration is invariably higher in populations with high rates of coronary heart disease than in populations where the prevalence is low. The serum cholesterol level is probably determined by the amount of fat habitually consumed and only infrequently by genetic factors. Arterial hypertension and heavy cigarette smoking powerfully increase the risk of coronary heart disease in the presence of hypercholesterolemia. The mechanism whereby cigarette smoking aggravates and accelerates atheropoiesis is unknown, but carbon monoxide and mobilization of catecholamines are probably implicated. The prevalence of the atherothrombotic diseases and of their ischemic complications can, in theory, be reduced by controlling hypercholesterolemia and hypertension and eliminating cigarette smoking.

Fasting and postprandial serum triglyceride levels in health and in ischemic heart disease.

Summary Fasting and 9 hour serum cholesterol and triglyceride measurements were made in 470 middle-aged men following the ingestion of a 70 g fat meal containing 131 I-labelled triolein. The amount of lipid-bound radioactivity in the 9-hour sample also was measured. Forty-two men who had clinical manifestations of IHD at the time of the test had significantly higher fasting and 9-hour serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels than those without disease but did not retain significantly more radio-active lipid at 9 hours. The correlation between fasting and 9-hour triglyceride levels was extremely high and indicated that a modified fat tolerance test, as utilized in this study, will yield no more information than a fasting triglyceride level as a means of differenti-ating between subjects with and without IHD. Although analysis of the data revealed that IHD was more prevalent in hyperglyceridemic than normoglyceridemic subjects, cholesterol levels also were higher in the former group than the latter. It was thus not possible on this basis to implicate one lipid more than the other. The lipid combination associated with the highest prevalence of IHD was a cholesterol level exceeding 275 mg/100 ml associated with a normal triglyceride level. Although IHD occurs in the presence of normal triglyceride levels, the possibility that various types of hyperglyceridemia may be related to the pathogenesis of IHD can not be discounted. It is hoped that the more accurate classification of abnormal hyperglyceridemic states possible with newer methods will help to define this relationship.

Tobacco and heart disease.

Strong circumstantial evidence links heavy cigarette smoking with early atherosclerosis and its follower—oronary heart disease. At least 600,000 persons die each year of coronaries, many prematurely. If physicians could persuade the public to stop smoking, many of these deaths could be averted.