Fibrinolytic activity of whole blood from South African Bantu and white subjects.

M ORTALITV fromn coronary heart disease is believed to be almost unknown among rural South African Bantu ; even among urban dwellers, deaths from the disease as proved at necropsy are extremely few.”2 Confirmation of this belief is being obtained from a collaborative clinical and biochemical study now in progress on Johannesburg Bantu pensioners over sixty years old (some approaching 100 years of age) ; in 340 subjects thus far examined, only one case of coronary heart disease, judged from clinical and electrocardiograph observations, has been detected.3 In the same number of elderly white people in Western countries, evidence suggests that fifty or more cases would be expected.4’ This favourable situation among the Bantu is far from explicable. Thus, while severe atherosclerosis of the aorta and, to much lesser extent, of coronary vessels is not common among them, unquestionably on occasion severe lesions do develop.6” Hypertension, moreover, is common #{149}6 .7 . 9 ,12, 13 Since these conditions, severe atherosclerosis and hypertension, are present in a proportion of adult Bantu, it would seem plausible from current thoughttm4” to consider that decreased coagulability and increase fibninolysin activity of blood may be among the salient factors that prevent the occurrence of acute thrombotic episodes in the coronary vessels of these people. Studies on Cape Town Bantu have revealed a deficiency