Myocardial Infarction Registry conducted forty years ago in Hungary

Abstract

Aims: Authors summarize the most important findings of the Myocardial Infarction Community Registry conducted in Hungary 40 years ago. The report is important because data are not available on the internet through literature search and since 40 years such study has not been performed. The incidence of acute myocardial infarction in subjects older than 20 years of age in the population of South Pest with 400 000 inhabitants in 1971 was 50.9/10 000 in men and 23.7/10 000 in women. The mortality rate of myocardial infarction during the first year was 56.2% in men and 60.7% in women. Two-third of the first-year death occurred in the first 24 hours and 85% of it in the prehospital period. Only 6% of the patients with acute myocardial infarction were admitted and treated in Coronary Care Units. Based on the data of the Myocardial Infarction Community Registry, measures were introduced which decreased the 28-days mortality rate at the population level. Conclusions: Authors emphasize that in the last decades the diagnosis and treatment of myocardial infarction has substantially changed which makes it necessary to re-evaluate by epidemiologic methods the natural history, incidence and mortality of acute myocardial infarction in Hungary. Orv. Hetil., 2011, 152, 793–796.