Egyptian Mummies Diagnosed With Heart Diseases

   Funny how far science can pierce: researchers have found signs of heart disease in 3,500-year-old mummies.

Photo: Egyptian Mummies Diagnosed With Heart Diseases

  "We think of it as being caused by modern risk factors," such as fast food, smoking and a lack of exercise, but the findings show that these aren't the only reasons arteries clog, said Dr. Randall Thompson, a cardiologist at the Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City.

  He and several other researchers used CT scans, a type of X-ray, on 22 mummies kept in the Egyptian National Museum of Antiquities in Cairo. The subjects were from 1981 B.C. to 334 A.D. Half were thought to be over 45 when they died, and average lifespan was under 50 back then.

  Sixteen mummies had heart and blood vessel tissue to analyze. Definite or probable hardening of the arteries was seen in nine.

    One mummy had evidence of a possible heart attack but scientists don't know if it was fatal. Scientists may only guess how much these people weighed — mummification dehydrates the body.

  Of those whose identities could be determined, all were of high social status, and many served in the court of the Pharaoh or as priests or priestesses.  "Rich people ate meat, and they did salt meat, so maybe they had hypertension (high blood pressure), but that's speculation," Thompson said.

  The oldest mummy with heart disease signs was Lady Rai, a nursemaid to Queen Ahmose Nefertari who died around 1530 B.C. — 200 years before King Tutankhamun.

  German imaging company Siemens AG, the National Bank of Egypt and the Mid-America Heart Institute paid for the work. Results are in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association and were reported Tuesday at an American Heart Association conference, according to reporters of the Associated Press.