Early Diagnosis of Ischemic Heart Disease

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 . . .