Acta Medica Scandinavica 

About: Acta Medica Scandinavica is an academic journal. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Blood pressure & Myocardial infarction. It has an ISSN identifier of 0001-6101. Over the lifetime, 12128 publications have been published receiving 193040 citations.

Epidemiological studies in the Upernavik district, Greenland. Incidence of some chronic diseases 1950-1974.

Abstract: An epidemiological survey of several chronic diseases in the Upernavik district, Northwest Greenland, is reported. The study population (approx. 1800 inhabitants) is one of the remaining whaling and sealing populations in Greenland. It was observed over the 25-year period 1950-74 as to the incidence of the diseases, which was based on all cases diagnosed in hospital during this period. The disease pattern of the Greenlanders differs from that of West-European populations, having a higher frequency of apoplexy and epilepsy but a lower frequency or absence of acute myocardial infarction, diabetes mellitus, thyrotoxicosis, bronchial asthma, multiple sclerosis and psoriasis. The distribution of cancer types differs from that of the Danish population, but the total incidence of cancer is of the same magnitude. Further comparable studies should be performed in Greenlandic districts that are characterized by more profound changes in life style, in order to elucidate the effect of these changes on the disease pattern.

The composition of food consumed by Greenland Eskimos.

Abstract: Food specimens have been collected, by means of the double-portion technique, from Greenland Eskimo hunters and their wives, in all seven persons, on seven consecutive days. Their food was found to contain more protein and less carbohydrates than average Danish food and an almost equal amount of fat. Compared with Danish food, the fatty acid pattern of the consumed lipids--essentially of mammalian marine origin--showed a higher content of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (especially C20:5) and lower contents of linoleic and linolenic acids. However, the sum of the polyunsaturated fatty acids was smaller than in Danish food. Using Keys' formula, describing the serum cholesterol level as a function of the nutritional fatty acids, the essentially lower serum choelsterol level found in Greenland Eskimos was not explained by our findings. It is suggested instead to be a special metabolic effect of the long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids from marine mammals. There might be a similar effect on the plasma triglyceride and very low density lipoprotein concentrations, explaining the much lower plasma concentrations of these components in Eskimos than in Western populations. Our findings might have an essential bearing on the difference in morbidity from coronary atherosclerotic disease between these populations.

Reduction of mortality in the Stockholm Ischaemic Heart Disease Secondary Prevention Study by combined treatment with clofibrate and nicotinic acid.

Abstract: . Consecutive survivors of a myocardial infarction from the Southern Hospital, below 70 years of age, were randomized into a Control group (n=276) and a Treatment group (n=279). The latter was openly prescribed the combination of clofibrate and nicotinic acid for serum lipid lowering. Each patient should remain in the study for 5 years and be seen regularly every 4 months at a special IHD outpatient clinic within the hospital. The concentration of serum cholesterol and triglyceride was lowered by 13% and 19%, respectively, in the Treatment group compared to the Control group. Total mortality was 82 cases in the Control group and 61 in the Treatment group, a 26% reduction (p 1.5 mmol/l (n=216). Secondly, it was most pronounced in the 44% of the treated patients who had a lowering of the serum triglyceride concentration by 30% or more, and in this subgroup the reduction of IHD mortality was 60% (p<0.01). For serum cholesterol there were no such relations. The difference between serum triglycerides and cholesterol concerning these relations to the treatment outcome may be due to the fact that hypertriglyceridaemia was the most common hyperlipidaemia among our patients, occurring in 50%, while hypercholesterolaemia only occurred in 13 %. Caution should be exercised in the interpretation of the results as the trial was not blind. However, the fact that the decrease in IHD deaths was directly related to the degree of serum triglyceride lowering indicates that it was the drug effect on serum lipids that was reponsible for the beneficial effect of the treatment.