Acute myocardial infarction in Stockholm - an area comparison.

Stockholm county is divided into 13 catchment areas, which differ in the respect of social and economical structure. There are also differences in the organisation of medical care. These areas were compared with respect to incidence and lethality of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The proportions of deaths from AMI taking place outside hospital were also compared. The study was based on the impatient-care register in Stockholm and on the cause-of-death register. It was concluded that differences in incidence between the catchment areas exist, most of which might be explained by socio-economic characteristics of the populations. No differences were found in lethality. Particularly, there was no difference in lethality between catchment areas with and without coronary-care units. For older people some small differences were found in the proportion of deaths outside hospital.