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Abstract
Recent autopsy records at Washington University in St. Louis and Makerere College
in Uganda, East Africa were reviewed to determine the incidences of venous thrombi
and pulmonary thromboembolic phenomena, as well as the incidences of myocardial infarcts,
in three groups of patients: (1) St. Louis white patients, (2) St. Louis Negroes,
and (3) Uganda Negroes.
The incidence of myocardial infarcts was high in St. Louis white patients, intermediate
in St. Louis Negroes and practically nil in Uganda Negroes; the only infarct found
in Uganda among 1,427 patients over forty years of age was a small healed one.
The incidence of venous thrombi and pulmonary thromboembolic phenomena closely paralleled
the incidence of myocardial infarcts in the three groups.
The studies reported herein suggest that differences in the general tendency of the
blood to clot and/or lyse account, at least in part, for the differences in the incidences
of coronary thrombosis and myocardial infarction that exist between autopsied Ugandans
and St. Louisans. Further investigation must be carried out utilizing many technics
before the suggestion can be established as fact. Other studies will then be necessary
to determine the precise nature of the difference and the reason for it, i.e., dietary,
emotional or genetic.
Probable, but as yet unestablished, differences in the degree of atherosclerosis present
in the three groups may also contribute to the differences in incidences of myocardial
infarction, but since the local factor of atherosclerosis is not present in veins,
it could not account for the observed differences in evidences of venous thrombosis.
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Article info
Footnotes
☆This study was supported in part by Grant H-1820 from the National Heart Institute, Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.
Identification
Copyright
© 1960 Published by Elsevier Inc.
