SURVIVAL FOLLOWING FIRST DIAGNOSIS OF CORONARY HEART DISEASE

1. 1. Survival tables over a 15 year period are presented for white males between the ages of 20 through 64 who were diagnosed to have a first clinical occurrence of coronary heart disease while in Army service. Diagnostic groupings for this analysis were separated into two categories: myocardial infarction-coronary thrombosis-coronary occlusion and angina pectoris-coronary insufficiency. 2. 2. Both the immediate prognosis for survival and the prognosis over the 15 year period were less favorable for cases initiating as myocardial infarction-coronary thrombosis-coronary occlusion, than for cases initiating as angina pectoris-coronary insufficiency. 3. 3. The first 24 hours after onset of clinical manifestations of either group of coronary disease syndromes was the period of the highest concentrated mortality rate. 4. 4. At all ages the myocardial infarction-coronary occlusion-coronary thrombosis group had a higher mortality rate (16.7 per cent) in the first year of follow-up than in any subsequent year. After the first year, the annual mortality rate in this group was about 5 per cent and did not vary much with length of follow-up. In the angina pectoris-coronary insufficiency group, the annual mortality rate was about 3 per cent throughout the follow-up period. 5. 5. Comparison of the observed mortality rate in the infarction-thrombosis-occlusion group with that expected for American males of the same age and race in the same calendar period reveals a steady decrease in the mortality ratio (observed/expected) from about 30 in the first year to approximately 2 in the interval 11-15 years after diagnosis. In both diagnostic groups, mortality ratios of older patients were lower than those of younger patients. © 1969.