Contrasting epidemiology of aortic aneurysm and peripheral vascular disease in England and Wales: Fig 1

Age standardised death rates from aortic aneurysm in England and Wales rose 20-fold in men and 11-fold in women between 1950 and 1984.1 Similar trends have been reported in other Western countries, most of the increase being in deaths from abdominal aneurysms. The scale of the increase suggests that it is probably not simply an artefact of improved diagnosis. Moreover, a review of all necropsies at Malmo General Hospital during 1958-86 showed a clear rise in the prevalence of aortic aneurysmal disease when it was assessed by standard examination techniques.2 The increase in aortic aneurysm is remarkable because it has occurred when rates of other forms of vascular disease, particularly coronary heart disease and stroke, have been falling.3 We therefore examined the distribution of mortality from aortic aneurysm further and …