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(Circulation. 1997;95:761-764.)
© 1997 American Heart Association, Inc.

Articles

Meeting Highlights

James J. Ferguson, MD; Robin Fox, MD

	Introduction

 
The following presentations were given at the 69th Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association in New Orleans, La, November 10-13, 1996.

	Paul Dudley White International Lecture

 
Since 1950, the United States and other developed countries have seen massive declines in death rates from coronary artery disease, by as much as 65% in those 44 to 55 years of age. The Nobel Prize winners Michael S. Brown and Joseph L. Goldstein predict that "Exploitation of recent breakthroughs...may well end coronary disease as a major public health problem early in the next century."¹ So has the time come to cut back on research and the employment of cardiologists? On the contrary, declared Dr David Kelly (Sydney, Australia) in his Paul Dudley White International Lecture at the start of the Scientific Sessions. Over the same 46 years, the number of coronary deaths actually rose by nearly two-thirds; he warned that the coming decades will bring a large increase in the burden of heart disease.

The reason for this paradox is the aging of the population. Today, >80% of coronary artery disease is seen in patients >65 years old, a group in which the modest decline in coronary death rates has been overshadowed by vast numerical growth, most strikingly in the very old. Thus, in the United States, the number of persons >85 years old was 1 million in 1970, is 3.5 million today, and is expected to reach 16 to 23 million 30 years hence. In this age group, the prevalence of heart failure alone is 10% . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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