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Biomedical subjects

G G Rhoads

Publications and source records attributed to G G Rhoads.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

Commingling in distributions of lipids and related variables.

In a sample of nearly 8,000 Japanese males, the distributions of casual cholesterol and triglyceride, hematocrit, glucose, uric acid, diastolic blood pressure, and weight (covariance adjusted) could not be normalized by a power transform and were significantly better fitted by a mixture of distributions. The evidence for admixture was nonsignificant for systolic blood pressure, significant but unimpressive for height and weight, and strong for the remaining variables. The minor component corresponded to high values, in low frequency except for triglyceride and glucose. These results favor an interpretation of elevated levels in terms of distinct entities, genetic or environmental or both, rather than cumulative small effects only. These entities appear to be megaphenic (i.e., with effects exceeding one phenotypic standard deviation). Consequences of this hypothesis are discussed.

Aged↗

Serum lipoproteins and coronary heart disease in a population study of Hawaii Japanese men.

To ascertain the frequency of defined hyperlipoproteinemia and to investigate the relation between lipoprotein fractions and coronary heart disease, we measured serum lipoprotein cholesterol levels in a population-based sample of Hawaii Japanese men 50 to 72 years old. Type II hyperlipoproteinemia was present in 3 per cent of 1859 men, and Type IV in 26 per cent. Relative risks for coronary heart disease, based on 264 prevalence cases, were found to be 1.8, 1.8 and 0.46, between the upper and lower quartiles of total, beta, and alpha cholesterol, respectively. We found no significant relation between triglyceride and coronary heart disease. The inverse relation of alpha cholesterol of prevalence of coronary heart disease was independent of beta cholesterol, obesity, and other factors. The data suggest the need for further evaluation of the protective effect of the alpha lipoprotein fraction on the development of coronary heart disease.

Aged↗

The reproducibility of dietary intake data in a prospective study of gastrointestinal cancer.

To test the reproducibility of the dietary questionnaire used in the Japan-Hawaii Cancer Study and to measure the consistency of dietary patterns over time, 109 men were reinterviewed with the same questionnaire after a 6-month interval and 111 men were reinterviewed after a 2-year interval. The responses for intake of the 33 food items in the questionnaire were fairly reproducible. Food items with substantial correlation coefficients in both groups of men tended to be consumed on a more habitual basis. This finding suggests that if habitually consumed foods are linked to specific cancers, it is less likely that such associations occur by chance. This is of particular importance because when many food items are considered in a dietary study, chance association between a specific food and cancer is not an infrequent event.

Aged↗

A comparative pathology study of myocardial lesions and atherosclerosis in Japanese men living in Hiroshima, Japan and Honolulu, Hawaii.

Autopsies were conducted on Japanese men from 45 to 71 years of age in Hiroshima, Japan (191 patients) and in Honolulu, Hawaii (298 patients). They were performed according to a common protocol. In both locations the patients studied were representative of decedents from population-based cohorts with respect to age and cause of death. The degree of atherosclerosis in the coronary arteries and aorta, assessed according to the panel method, was found to be substantially more severe in men in Hawaii than in those in Japan. Areas of recent myocardial necrosis were 3.5 times more frequent in men in Honolulu than in those in Hiroshima. Large myocardial scars were 1.5 times more frequent in the men in Honolulu. It was characteristic of men in Honolulu that severe atherosclerosis and myocardial lesions appeared at younger ages than in those in Hiroshima. These data demonstrate that there is an increase in the frequency and severity of ischemic lesion in the myocardium of Japanese who have migrated to Hawaii and that this increase is the result of atherosclerosis of the extramural segments of the coronary arteries.

Aged↗

Left axis deviation and left anterior hemiblock among 8,000 Japanese-American men.

Electrocardiographic patterns of left axis deviation and left anterior hemiblock, defined by a frontal plane QRS axis of minus 30 degrees to minus 44 degrees and minus 45 degrees to minus 90 degrees, respectively, with normal QRS duration, were found to be fairly common (2.6 and 1.5 percent, respectively) in a community population of 8,000 Japanese-American men aged 45 to 69 years. More than 60 percent of men with these electrocardiographic patterns had no other cardiovascular abnormalities, and the incidence of fatal or nonfatal coronary heart disease and stroke in this group during observation periods of 3 to 6 years was not significantly different from that of control normal men. A significant association was found between these electrocardiographic patterns and the prevalence of hypertension, myocardial infarction and stroke. However, the association of myocardial infarction with left anterior hemiblock appeared to be coincidental and was attributed largely to the similarity of the electrocardiographic manifestations of left anterior hemiblock and inferior wall myocardial infarction. Men with left axis deviation were fatter and had higher blood pressure than the control population. No such difference could be demonstrated for men with left anterior hemiblock although this group was significantly older than control subjects and men with left axis deviation. The results of our study suggest that there are qualitative differences between the causative mechanisms and clinical features of left axis deviation and those of left anterior hemiblock.

Age Factors↗

A dietary method for an epidemiologic study of gastrointestinal cancer.

The validity of a dietary recall questionnaire was tested among 50 men of Japanese ancestry, participating in a prospective epidemiologic study of gastrointestinal cancer in Honolulu. The questionnaire included 33 food items consumed in Hawaii and suggested as possibly carcinogenic or possibly protective. Estimated intakes of frequencies and amounts during the previous day and previous 7 days were obtained. The validity study consisted of a comparison of a 7 day diary of the frequencies and amounts of the 33 items with a subsequent recall of the same items. The sensitivity (proportion of men recording an item who subsequently recalled it) was better for 24 of the 33 items during the 7-day period than the 1-day period. The overall agreement between the two methods on whether the item was eaten or not was only marginally less for the 7 days than for the 1 day. Estimated intakes tended to be higher for the diary than the recall method. The Spearman rank correlation coefficients among persons recording the items generally were good (greater than 0.7) for items eaten habitually and for those associated with specific events. Further, rank order correlations for quantitative recell of particular food items has considerable validity and is a reasonable choice of method for studies of large groups concerning the role of particular food items in the etiology of cancer.

Carcinogens↗

Epidemiologic studies of coronary heart disease and stroke in Japanese men living in Japan, Hawaii and California: mortality.

Stroke, coronary heart disease (CHD) and total mortality are evaluated from death certificates in enumerated cohorts of 45-64-year old Japanese men in Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1965-1970), in Homolulu (1966-1970), and in the San Francisco area (1968-1972). Total mortality is highest in Japan with no consistent differences between Japanese Americans in Homolulu and San Francisco. Age-specific CHD death rates are markedly lower in all three Japanese groups than in American whites. The CHD rates are consistently and significantly lower in Japan that in American Japanese. Stroke death rates for American Japanese men appear equivalent to figures for US white men of the same age, but are significantly lower than in the Japan cohort for the 60-64-year-old group. The number of stroke deaths below that age are too few as yet for analysis. Validation of mortality ascertainment and of the accuracy of death certification has been carried out in Japan and in Hawaii. The international differences in mortaltiy do not appear to be due to certification or other methodologic artifact.

Age Factors↗

Dietary patterns among men of Japanese ancestry in Hawaii.

The dietary patters of 6663 men of Japanese ancestry, living in Hawaii and participating in the Honolulu Heart and Japan-Hawaii Cancer Studies, were analyzed according to country of birth and boyhood education. Approximately 80% of the men were born and educated in Hawaii (Nisei); the others were either born in Japan (Issei) or traveled to Japan for 5 or more years of boyhood education (Kibei). Twenty-four-hr diet recalls, obtained at the first cycle of examinations (1965 to 1968), revealed that the Nisei consumed significantly greater intakes of total and animal protein, total and saturated fat, and cholesterol than the Issei and Kibei. Values for weight, height, skinfold thickness, and serum cholesterol were in the same direction, and the differences were statistically significant. Food frequency questionnaires at the 1st and 3rd examinations covered a 6-year interval. At both time periods, the Issei and Kibei ate Japanese foods more frequently and in greater quantities than the Nisei. In general, the Nisei consumed more Western foods. Both food frequency questionnaires included 6 identical items; coffee, milk, green tea, rice, tofu (soybean curd), and tsukudani (preserved seaweed paste). The frequent and infrequent consumers were similarly characterized over the 6-year period. The findings suggest that the country of birth and education has lasting effects on adult eating patterns. The observed heterogeneity for specific food items and nutrients between the Nisei and Issei-Kibei men augers well for attempts to relate such items to chronic diseases such as cancer.

Body Height↗

Long term results of gastrectomy with respect to blood lipids, blood pressure, weight and living habits.

A sample of ambulant Japanese-American men (ages 45-69 years), was divided into those having a previous partial gastrectomy and a control non-gastrectomy population. Three-hundred-and-forty-seven men with a history of partial gastrectomy weighed less and had lower values for serum cholesterol, triglyceride, and blood pressure than did the control population of 7,598 men. The depressed lipid and blood pressure values could not be entirely explained by the reduced weight. Likewise, none of these differences appeared related to diet or living habits. Those operated on for gastric ulcer had, on the average, lower systolic pressures than duodenal ulcer patients and those with gastrojejunal anastamoses had lower cholesterol levels than patients with a gastroduodenostomy.

Alcohol Drinking↗