Case Studies in Medicine

Statistics 1

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Question ii

Does there appear to be a relationship between change in triglyceride level and change in mass?

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What are triglycerides?

• When you eat, your body uses carbohydrate calories for immediate energy

• Leftover calories are turned into triglycerides and stored in fat cells for later use

Source: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003493.htm [14 July 2011] 4

Blood test

• Blood is typically drawn from a vein

• The most important use of this test is to help estimate your LDL cholesterol

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triglyceride [14 July 2011] 5

Results

The American Heart Association has set guidelines for triglyceride levels:

Level mg/dL Interpretation<150 Normal range, low risk150 - 199 Borderline high200 - 499 High>500 Very high, high risk

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Question iii

Is it possible to obtain a simple formula for predicting change in triglyceride level from change in mass?