MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION IN EARLY AGE

. Two hundred and thirty survivors among 481 males, suffering their first myocardial infarction at or below the age of 50, were submitted to a thorough follow-up examination 1–18 years after their first attack. Coronary risk factors, as earlier established from clinical work and prospective studies, were extremely prevalent as judged by comparison with a population study of 855 fifty-year-old males from the same city, using the same methods. Serum cholesterol, serum triglyceride, serum uric acid, serum fibrinogen, fasting blood sugar, systolic and diastolic blood pressures all showed a heavy accumulation within the higher decentiles of the population study. This was especially striking as regards serum cholesterol. 97.5 per cent had been smokers at the time of the attack as compared with 56.2 in the population study. Efforts aimed at control of the risk factors had in the vast majority of cases been neglected or unsystematically or badly pursued.