CHANGING PRESENTATION OF CORONARY HEART-DISEASE IN AN INPATIENT POPULATION WITHIN THE UNITED-STATES MILITARY HEALTH-CARE SYSTEM

This study examines the changing presentation of coronary heart diseas e (CHD) in an inpatient population at Brooke Army Medical Center. The specific objectives of the study were to examine the presentation of C HD in a population unbiased by diagnosis-related group (DRG) reimburse ments and to assess the importance of unstable angina and prior histor y of disease in the presentation of CHD. One thousand fifteen discharg es in 1985 and 1,304 discharges in 1990 with the diagnosis of CHD were reviewed by cardiologists for evidence of symptomatic heart disease a t the time of hospitalization. Forty percent of these charts were acce pted into this study. The presentation rates of CHD were 1% with sudde n death, 26% with myocardial infarction, 64% with angina, and 9% with congestive heart failure (CHF). During the study period, stable angina , Q-wave infarctions, and the myocardial infarction case fatality rate decreased (p < 0.05) and CHF and non-Q wave infarcts increased (p < 0 .001). However, unstable angina was the most common presentation of CH D, and differences (p < 0.05) were noted in the presentation of CHD in patients with and without a prior history of disease. This study demo nstrates the significance of unstable angina and prior history of CHD in an environment free of bias from DRG reimbursements.