Table 2
Major Diagnoses

Essential hypertension *
Arteriosclerotic heart disease
Cerebral arteriosclerosis
Bronchiectasis

Utirik

Exposed
Rongelap

No. cases Percent

No. cases Percent

No. cases Percent

1

Oe

Diagnosis

Unexposed
Rongelap

Emphysema

11
3
1
1

Cancer

Tertiary syphilis
Primary yaws
Pulmonary tuberculosis
G.I. parasites
Congenital abnormalities (all types)

I
8

Asthma
Osteoarthritis
Rheumatic heart disease

7

95

Total examined

13
2
6
1
10
2**
I
l

9
2
4
i
7
2
1
i

1
13
4
8

i
9
3
3

144

7

7

1

1

l

1

1

1

10

11

5
2

5
2

93

*Defined as systolic 140 mm Hg ordiastolic 100 mm Hg.

**Orbital tumor, type unknown; basalcell skin carcinoma.

Table 3
Congenital Abnormalities

Diagnosis
Umbilical hernia
Shortening 5th finger
Shortening 5th metacarpal
Absence carpal bones
Polydactylism
Flexion deformity finger

Congenital deformity leg
Anomaly feet
Palatal anomaly
Tonguetied
Asymmetry of face
Thyroglossal cyst
Cretin (athyreatic)
Congenital nystagmus
Pigmentation cornea
Absencetesticle

Adrenogenital syndrome

Congenital heart disease

No.in
radiated

No.in
Utirik

1

6
1

group

3
1
1
1
2

group

1

sented for the irradiated Rongelap children and
the unirradiated Marshallese children. (The
Utirik children are included in the unirradiated
group.) Table 4 shows the mean height and
weight for the exposed and unexposed children of different ages. The mean values for the weight
and height, for the most part, were slightly lower
in the exposed children, male and female, from
about 4 through about10 years of age. The num-

bers of children are too small for satisfactory
statistical analysis. Recently a carefully standard-

ized series of studies of the left wrist (which has

1
1

been found to be a reliable index of skeletal age)
in children of various ages has been published.*
All x-rays of the wrists of the Marshallese children
were comparedto this standard,* which was obtained from studies of white American children
of Northern Europeanextraction. In Figure 4 the
bone ages of the Marshallese are compared with
the published standards. General retardation may
be noted in skeletal maturation in the irradiated
*Weare indebted to Dr. Leo Lusted of the National Institutes
of Health for analyzing the x-rays for bone development.

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