Determinants of total and high density lipoprotein cholesterol in boys from Finland, The Netherlands, Italy, the Philippines and Ghana with special reference to diet.

We have studied the determinants of total and high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol in young boys from five countries characterized by different lifestyles, dietary consumption profiles and mortality rates from coronary heart disease. All measurements including the estimation of dietary intake, physical activity, body mass index and the concentrations of total and HDL cholesterol were carefully standardized. The mean concentrations of total and HDL cholesterol were higher in the European boys (4.1-4.9 mmol/l and 1.45-1.57 mmol/l, respectively) than in the boys from Ghana and the Philippines (3.3-3.8 mmol/l and 0.93-1.10 mmol/l, respectively). A positive correlation was found between the concentration of total cholesterol and the intake of saturated fatty acids in four out of five countries. The concentration of HDL cholesterol was also related to various dietary variables in some of the groups. Using the regression coefficients from a multiple regression analysis on the pooled data, it could be calculated that on average 24 per cent of the inter-country differences in the levels of total cholesterol is explained by differences in the intakes of saturated fatty acids. Differences between the groups of the different countries in the intakes of carbohydrate explained on average 29 per cent of the differences in the concentrations of HDL cholesterol. The results obtained support the hypothesis that higher concentrations of total and HDL cholesterol are associated with western types of diets rich in saturated fatty acids and relatively poor in complex carbohydrates.

Maternal, foetal and neonatal blood creatine-phosphokinase-activities and creatine-phosphokinase-isoenzymes after labour with and without epidural analgesia and after caesarean section.

Maternal, cord and neonatal blood creatine-phosphokinase (CK) activities and CK-isoenzymes were determined in connection with 24 labours after normal pregnancies. In eight cases there was a normal vaginal delivery; in another eight cases there was a normal vaginal delivery with segmental epidural analgesia; and in the remaining eight cases there was an elective caesarean section under general anaesthesia. The lowest maternal blood CK-activities were seen in connection with caesarean section. There was a statistically significant difference in the maternal CK levels after delivery between cases with caesarean section and normal labour (P less than 0.05) and between cases with caesarean section and labour with segmental epidural analgesia (P less than 0.001). Most of the maternal CK-activity was of muscular type, and there were no statistically significant differences in isoenzyme fractions between the different groups. The neonatal blood CK-activities were at their peak at the age of 1 day in all groups. Between the groups there were no statistically significant differences in cord or neonatal blood CK-activities at any time. Most of the cord and neonatal blood CK-activity was also of muscular type, and there were no significant differences in the CK-isoenzyme fractions between the groups.