[Characteristics of the course of non-fatal ischemic heart disease (data of a prospective study of the open population of men over 40].

A total of 2096 males born in 1916-1935, residing by 1976 in the Petrogradsky District of Leningrad, were twice examined (with an interval of 7.6 yrs) using epidemiological methods. This group was equal to 53.6% of the persons subjected to the first screening. Data on the dead and those who had not come to the second screening, were not analyzed. The total frequency of nonfatal CHD from 1976 up to 1984 raised from 12.6 to 19.2%. As was shown by the assessment of a WHO questionnaire with relation to angina of effort and an analysis of ECG at rest, CHD was undetectable during the second screening in some of the examinees with CHD detected during the first screening. Further on the angina syndrome was not reaffirmed in 52.3% of the patients with previously diagnosed angina, "ischemic" ECG changes were not recorded in 37.1% of the persons with previously detected ischemic codes. Positive ECG time course was noted in 52.1% of the persons with ECG changes typical of CHD detected during the first screening. In spite of a marked tendency to an increase in the total CHD frequency a long-term observation demonstrated a possibility of a favorable time course of chronic CHD and remission in this disease.