Early Diagnosis of Ischemic Heart Disease

Abstract

HALF of all deaths in the United States are ascribed to diseases of the circulation, the most important of which is arteriosclerotic, coronary-artery or ischemic heart disease.¹ The term ischemic heart disease is preferred and will hereafter be used in this communication.² Efforts to cure or to prevent ischemic heart disease are frustrated by ignorance of the etiology and the pathogenesis of the disease. The Cardiovascular Health Center, a prospective study of degenerative heart disease in a group of middle-aged men, was undertaken to extend knowledge of the natural history of ischemic heart disease, to exploit epidemiologic clues suggested by . . .