Comparative Study on Plasma Lipids—Japanese and Other Oriental Foreigners

Japanese have been considered to have low mortality rate on cardiovascular disease due to less severity of atherosclerotic risk factors. Plasma lipid levels are also suspected to be lower among Japanese than those among foreigners, especially from western countries. The present study was conducted to compare the plasma lipids of other Oriental foreigners with those of Japanese based on the strict matched comparison. Total cholesterol, triglyceride, phospholipids, free fatty acids and HDL-cholesterol were determined on the fasting plasma obtained from 23 subjects of each group, in which age, sex, and obesity index were strictly identical. Mean total cholesterol was 230.5 mg/dl among Japanese and 232.8 mg/dl among foreigners, mean LDL-cholesterol calculated from the equation of Friedewald et al was 136.9 mg/dl and 145.4 mg/dl respectively, and HDL-cholesterol was 62.4 mg/dl and 59.3 mg/dl respectively. Mean plasma triglyceride level was 155.8 mg/dl among Japanese and 140.2 mg/dl among foreigners. Those plasma lipid levels were not statistically different in both groups. Comparison was also made based on the matched alcohol and smoking habits. There were neither significant differences in plasma lipids in both groups. This study indicated that there seemed to be absent the racial differences in plasma lipids among Orientals when compared strictly on the basis of the same age, sex and obesity index.