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At least 829 records · Page 46Linked to original sources
PubMed1975

A family study of blood pressure in Polynesians.

The family aggregation of blood pressure was studied in Tokelau Island children aged 5-14 years and their parents resident on their home islands in 1971. Five hundred and two (97 per cent) of the children had a recorded blood pressure and they formed 210 sibling groups. The sibship similarity of blood pressure z scores adjusted for year of age and sex was examined by analysis of variance between and within sibships in the 133 sibships with more than one member. For both systolic and diastolic pressure a statistically significant sibship similarity exists which is independent of family size, level of pressure, and the sibship similarity of Quetelet Index. The correlation coefficient of the z score of one index child chosen at random and the remaining siblings is 0-14 (n = 282, p = 0-017). Of the parental variables studied the mother's systolic pressure is the best, and only, predictor of the child's systolic z score. These results suggest that in the Tokelau islanders a family similarity of blood pressure is established relatively early in life.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

Blood pressure and migration in children.

The effect of migration on childhood blood pressure levels has been studied by comparing children before and after migration to New Zealand with children who stayed at home on the Pacific atolls of Tokelau. Data were collected in 1971 on 502 children (97% response rate) aged 5--14 years resident in Tokelau and follow-up data were collected in New Zealand and in Tokelau in 1975--1977 (respknse rate 91%). No selection factors were detected before migration. After migration, the younger migrants had significantly higher blood pressures and were heavier, but not taller, than the non-migrants. Weight differences explained some but not all of the blood pressure differences. There were no differences in body size between the 2 groups of older children although the older non migrant girls had higher blood pressure than the migrant girls.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Evidence for protective immunity to bancroftian filariasis in the Cook Islands.

To challenge the concept of protective immunity in lymphatic filariasis, 19 adult residents of a Wuchereria bancrofti-endemic island who had been diagnosed 17 years earlier as putatively immune endemic normals (PI/EN) were reexamined. Even with continued exposure to infection, all 19 had maintained their apparent infection-free status. Studies to define the mechanisms underlying this putative immunity revealed that cellular immune responses (including proliferation; generation of interleukin [IL]-2, IL-5, IL-10, interferon-gamma, and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor) to adult- and microfilarial-stage antigens, but not antibody responses, were markedly greater than those of 20 age-matched, infected patients. Furthermore, the PI/EN group was comprised of high- and low-responding persons who were clinically indistinguishable. These findings provide evidence that protective immunity to lymphatic filariasis does occur and that it is probably T cell-mediated.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

A seroepidemiologic study of infection with HAV and HBV in five Pacific Islands.

A batch of 1025 serum samples, obtained from healthy subjects and hospital patients from five Pacific islands (Viti Levu, Funafuti, Niue, Rarotonga and Upolu) were tested for antibody to hepatitis A virus (anti-HAV), hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAG) and antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen (anti-HBs) by solid phase radioimmunoassay (SPRIA). High frequencies of anti-HAV were observed in each population (Funafuti, 79.9%; Upolu, 81.6%; Viti Levu, 84.3%; Rarotonga, 95.0%; and Niue, 95.2%), and the age-specific prevalence suggested that the majority of infections with this virus had occurred in the first decade of life. Hepatitis B was endemic in each population, although the total infection rates (as measured by the sum of HBsAG and anti-Hbs frequencies) were lower than for hepatitis A. While infections with each virus tended to run in parallel, peak prevalence of anti-HAV was usually reached in the second decade of life and peak prevalence of HBsAg and anti-HBs was not attained until a decade later. The pattern of infection with HBV was similar in each of the groups studied with the exception of Indians living in Viti Levu, among whom unusually low levels of antigen and antibody were demonstrated.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Hepatitis B virus infections in Melanesians and Polynesians in New Caledonia.

Hepatitis B virus infections were examined in two ethnically different Pacific Island groups, 532 Melanesians and 401 Polynesians, living under similar environmental circumstances on the island of Ouvea, New Caledonia. High hepatitis B virus infection rates (Melanesians, 89.3%, and Polynesians, 86.3%) and hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) carrier rates (Melanesians, 11.7%, and Polynesians, 8.0%) were observed in both groups. The carrier rate for HBsAg was generally higher in men, particularly Melanesian men. Comparing the Ouvea Melanesians and Polynesians to 170 Melanesians living on the main island of New Caledonia, significantly lower rates for hepatitis B virus infection (47.1%) and HBsAg carrier state (0.6%) were found. The findings suggest that environmental factors may be more important than genetic factors in hepatitis B infections in these populations. Tattooing did not appear to influence the presence of hepatitis B virus infection.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Evolutionary history of the COII/tRNALys intergenic 9 base pair deletion in human mitochondrial DNAs from the Pacific.

Length changes in human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) are potentially useful markers for inferring the evolutionary history of populations. One such length change is a nine base pair (9-bp) deletion that is located in the intergenic region between the COII gene and the Lysine tRNA gene (COII/tRNALys intergenic region). This deletion has been used as a genetic marker to trace descent from peoples of East Asian origin. A geographic cline of the deletion frequency across modern Pacific Islander populations suggests that the deletion may be useful for tracing prehistoric Polynesian origins and affinities. Mitochondrial DNA sequence variation within two variable segments of the control region (CR) permits a number of inferences regarding the evolutionary history of the 9-bp deletion that cannot be determined from frequency data alone. We obtained CR sequences from 74 mtDNAs with the 9-bp deletion from Indonesia, coastal Papua New Guinea (PNG), and American Samoa. Phylogenetic and pairwise distribution analysis of these CR sequences pooled with previously published CR sequences reveals that the deletion arose independently in Africa and Asia and suggests possible multiple origins of the deletion in Asia. A clinal increase of the frequency of the 9-bp deletion across the three Pacific populations is associated with a decrease in CR sequence diversity, consistent with founder events. Furthermore, analysis of pairwise difference distributions indicates an expansion time of proto-Polynesians that began 5,500 yr ago from Southeast Asia. These results are consistent with the express train model of Polynesian origins.

Base Sequence↗