Tuesday 17 May 2011

Egyptian princess is oldest heart disease case

An Egyptian princess – Ahmose-Meryet-Amon – who lived more than 3,500 years ago is the oldest known person to have had clogged arteries, according to research was presented today at a conference on heart imaging in Amsterdam.

"Atherosclerosis clearly existed more than 3,000 years ago," said Adel Allam, a cardiology professor at Al Azhar University in Cairo, who led the study with Gregory Thomas, director of nuclear cardiology education at the University of California in Irvine. "We cannot blame this disease on modern civilization."
To determine how common heart disease was in ancient Egypt, scientists performed computer scans on 52 mummies in Cairo and the United States.

For more see: The Candadian Press, EurekAlert, Fox News

Also see:  Sheer heart attack: mummies with a modern malady

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