[The bicycle electrocardiographic test for secondary prevention of coronary insufficiency. Results of a screening on 11,362 Italian workers (author's transl)].

A series of multi-phase mass screenings has been carried out in a number of working communities for locating, in their early stage, some socially important disease. The bicycle electrocardiographic test has been used for diagnostical purposes in order to single out all subjects affected by latent coronary heart disease and to evaluate the method as a means of prevention for the population. In the whole case-history, consisting of subjects free from coronary disease and with normal blood-pressure, mostly young or middle aged, the prevalence of positive electrocardiographic tests has been of 0.96%. The incidence of ischemic heart disease in 39 subjects with positive exercise test controlled after two-five years has been of 19%. Since the percentage of subjects with positive exercise test is extremely low on account of the not high occurrence of ischemic heart disease in our country as well as of the limited sensitivity of this method, it is believed that the electrocardiographic exercise test is not a satisfactory tool for secondary prevention of coronary disease in the Italian population.