Prevalence of ischaemic heart disease and of various electrocardiographic changes according to findings of the cooperative Moscow-Kaunas-Minsk study.

In the cooperative study of multifactorial prevention of ischaemic heart disease (IHD), conducted in Moscow, Kaunas and Minsk, the authors investigated and compared the prevalence of IHD, its various forms, ECG changes and the awareness of the IHD patients that they were affected by this disease. Preventive examination of the male population in the 40 to 59 years age group revealed the presence of IHD in 14.8% in Moscow, 10.7% in Kaunas and 14.1% in Minsk. In the male population in Moscow IHD has a more severe course with the prevalence of painful forms, whereas in Kaunas there occur in more than 50% of the patients and in Minsk in 49% painless forms of IHD. Myocardial infarction occurs in Moscow more frequently (3.7%) than in Minsk (3.1%) and in Kaunas (2.5%), and is in Moscow in a higher percentage of cases associated with signs of pronounced cicatricial changes in the myocardium on the ECG. Angina pectoris of effort occurred among persons without MI in Kaunas in 2.4%, in Minsk twice as frequently (4.8%) and in Moscow nearly three times as frequently (6.8%). Of the persons in whom examination established the presence of IHD or angina pectoris of effort, every third in Moscow and every second in Kaunas and Minsk was not aware of their disease.