Increased incidence of bleeding intracranial aneurysms in Greenlandic Eskimos

In the six-year period 1976-1981 the incidence of bleeding of intracranial saccular aneurysms in Greenlandic Eskimos was compared retrospectively to that in Caucasian Danes. The study comprises only patients admitted to a Neurosurgical Department. Criteria for admission and diagnosis were similar in the two populations. Incidence rates for all ages were 9.3 and 3.1 per 100,000 population per year among Eskimos and Caucasian Danes, respectively. Weighting differences between the two populations regarding population size, age distribution and number of patients, the relative risk for Eskimos compared with Caucasian Danes was 4.4 (95% confidence limits 2.9-6.5). In an attempt to account for this finding, the possibility of different connective tissue properties in the two populations is briefly discussed.