In this image made available by the Mission Internal Medical Group on Tuesday May, 17, 2011, the sarcophagus containing the mummy Isis (New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, 1295-1186 BC) undergoes a CT scan in the Egyptian Museum Cairo May 10, 2010. An Egyptian princess who lived more than 3,500 years ago is the oldest known person to have had clogged arteries, dispelling the myth that heart disease is a symptom of modern society, a new study says. To determine how widespread heart disease was in ancient Egypt, international scientists performed computer scans on 52 mummies in Cairo and the U.S. About half of the mummies were those of people who held elite positions in the pharaoh’s court. Among the mummies who still had heart tissue, 44 had chunks of calcium stuck to their arteries. EDITORIAL USE ONLY

First published in the November 02, 2011, 10:49 a.m. edition

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