Evaluation of the sampling plan used in collecting data for a study of LDL subclass pattern

The genetic epidemiologic study of coronary heart disease conducted by a group in the Donner Laboratory used survey and ad hoc sampling plans, resulting in a random and an ad hoc sample of families, respectively. These two samples were used to evaluate the ad hoc sampling plan used in that study. Following the description of data collection, we adjusted for ascertainment, but still found that the aggregation patterns of many lipoproteins in the ad hoc sample were different from those in the random sample.