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Background: The Seven Countries Study in the 1960s showed very low mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD) in Japan, which was attributed to very low levels of total cholesterol. Studies of migrant Japanese to the USA in the 1970s documented increase in CHD rates, thus CHD mortality in Japan was expected to increase as their lifestyle became Westernized, yet CHD mortality has continued to decline since 1970. This study describes trends in CHD mortality and its risk factors since 1980 in Japan, contrasting those in other selected developed countries.Methods: We selected Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the USA. CHD mortality between 1980 and 2007 was obtained from WHO Statistical Information System. National data on traditional risk factors during the same period were obtained from literature and national surveys.Results: Age-adjusted CHD mortality continuously declined between 1980 and 2007 in all these countries. The decline was accompanied by a constant fall in total cholesterol except Japan where total cholesterol continuously rose. In the birth cohort of individuals currently aged 50-69 years, levels of total cholesterol have been higher in Japan than in the USA, yet CHD mortality in Japan remained the lowest: >67% lower in men and > 75% lower in women compared with the USA. The direction and magnitude of changes in other risk factors were generally similar between Japan and the other countries.Conclusions: Decline in CHD mortality despite a continuous rise in total cholesterol is unique. The observation may suggest some protective factors unique to Japanese. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. The epidemiological manifestations of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) differ geographically. However, there have been no prospective studies comparing the incidence of AAV between Japan and Europe over the same time period using the same case definitions.Methods. The incidence of AAV was determined by a population-based method in Miyazaki prefecture, Japan, and Norfolk, UK, between 2005 and 2009. Patients with AAV were defined and classified according to the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) algorithm.Results. The number of incident cases of AAV in Japan and the UK were 86 and 50, respectively, and the average annual incidence over the 5-year period was 22.6/million (95% CI 19.1, 26.2) and 21.8/million (95% CI 12.6, 30.9) in Japan and the UK, respectively. The average age was higher in patients in Japan than in patients in the UK [mean (median), 69.7 (72) vs 60.5 (61) years]. Microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) was the predominant subtype in Japan (83%), while granulomatosis with polyangiitis (Wegener's) was more frequent in the UK (66%). As for the pattern of ANCA positivity, >80% of Japanese patients were pANCA/MPO positive, whereas two-thirds of UK patients were cANCA/PR3 positive. Renal involvement in MPA was very common in both countries, but was much less common in granulomatosis with polyangiitis in Japan compared with the UK.Conclusion. There was no major difference in AAV incidence between Japan and the UK, but this prospective study found MPA and MPO-ANCA to be more common in Japan and granulomatosis with polyangiitis and PR3-ANCA to be more common in the UK, in line with earlier reports. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]