Coronary disease in Japan.

Letters to the Editor will be published, if suitable, as space permits. They should not exceed 500 words (typed double-spaced) in length and may be subject to editing or abridgment. We appreciate the editorial comment of Drs. An inverse relation between total serum cholesterol and cerebral hemorrhage was first reported by Komachi et a12 in 1972. Since then, other reports indicating this association appeared from prospective studies in Japanese,3'4 Japanese-Americans,5 and, recently, US men screened for the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial.6 Our recent report7 presented 20-year observations of trends in cardiovascular diseases and their risk factors in rural Japan. The rise in population serum cholesterol level was associated with a decline in the incidence of cerebral hemorrhage. However, a causal relation between serum cholesterol and cerebral hemorrhage remains to be further investigated. Hopefully, our work will stimulate epidemiologic and experimental studies on the etiology of hem-orrhagic stroke in different cultures.