Factors in Diagnosis and Classification of Deaths from CVR Diseases

OVEE one-half of the deaths occurring annually in the United States are attrib¬ uted to cardiovascular-renal diseases (CVK).As may be seen from table 1, the largest fre¬ quency of deaths is found in the component arteriosclerotic heart disease including coro¬ nary disease.Next in frequency are vascular lesions affecting the central nervous system, and the hypertensive diseases.With the decline in mortality from infectious diseases generally, cardiovascular diseases of infective origin now constitute less than 5 percent of the total CVK disease mortality.Marked differences in death rates appear for the various demographic characteristics as well as geographic areas.The reasons for these differences are not all clear.Nor is there agree¬ ment that the recorded differences are real.