The USAFSAM Cardiovascular Disease Followup Study: Clinical Evaluation of Subjects Near Age 43.

摘要

Clinical examinations were performed on 382 members of the Cardiovascular Disease Followup Study (West Point Study). Four men (of eight who underwent cardiac catheterization during the examination) were found by coronary angiography to have significant coronary disease. Previously another man had undergone coronary bypass surgery after an evaluation by coronary angiography and five men had suffered a myocardial infarction (documented by medical records and electrocardiographic evidence). Unequivocal evidence of coronary artery disease was therefore present in ten men. The pattern of means of serum lipid and lipoprotein levels expected to be associated with coronary artery disease was found in this disease group; however, because of the biological variability and the small number of men in the disease group, no definite conclusions were drawn about the meaning of these risk factors in this group. A summary of extensive laboratory data collected on the other members of the group is essentially a table of normal values for healthy men at approximately 43 years of age. The members of this study are not a cross section of U.S. males of comparable age. This fact may be responsible for the disproportionately high prevalence of type A1 behavior pattern and the finding that the type A behavior pattern was not highly correlated with elevation of any of the common risk factors for coronary artery disease . More followup studies will be required to capitalize on the potentially important contribution this study can make to understanding levels and the development of cardiovascular disease. (Author)