Comparison of Aortic Atherosclerosis in the United States, Japan, and Guatemala

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Abstract
Some degree of atherosclerosis is present in virtually all individuals by the thirtieth year in New Orleans, Los Angeles, Japan (Sapporo), and Guatemala. Subsequent aging is associated with a progressive increase of aortic atherosclerosis. The rate of increase is least in Guatemala and greatest in the United States. Within the limits of the assay procedure atherosclerosis is identical in Los Angeles and New Orleans. There is suggestive, but not conclusive, evidence that in Japan the rapid increase in the severity of atherosclerosis that characterizes the middle decades in the United States is delayed. In the latter decades, however, the intimal disease, in this sample at least, is fully as severe in Japan as it is in New Orleans and Los Angeles.