A 10-Year Follow-Up of Ischemic Heart Disease Risk Factors in Military Pilots

ABSTRACT Introduction: Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) represent the reason for approximately 10% of all groundings among military pilots. After their first screening examination, which decides their fitness for flight, pilots are required to appear for screening examinations yearly, which makes it possible to monitor the changes in the risk factors of ischemic heart disease (IHD) from their candidate days until their retirement or final grounding. Subjects and Methods: During regular fitness screenings, we determined the individual and common occurrence and changes of recorded or measured IHD risk factors on the basis of 10- (baseline), 5-, and 0-year (current) data in the cases of 250 active male military pilots, broken down into 5-year age groups. In addition, by the help of complex risk calculation methods, we calculated the 5- and 10-year risk of coronary artery disease and CVDs, respectively. Results: In the first year of the examinations, the following risk factors appeared: positive family history ...