Changing pattern of heart diseases in Shanghai from the 1950s to 1980s

Objective To determine the pattern of dynamic change in types of heart dise ases in the past 4 decades for providing a reference to treatment and preve ntion of heart diseases in China. Methods All adult cardiac patients admitted to the Zhong Shan Hospital and Hua Shan Hospital from 1948 to 1989 were analyzed. The constituent ratio of different heart diseases in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s was compared . Results The percentage of heart diseases among medical inpatients increased in each of the recent 4 decades, from 9.89%, 15.69%, 20.90% to 23.54% resp ectively. The constituent ratio of different heart diseases changed, corona ry heart disease constituted the highest proportion, next came rheumatic he art disease, and congenital heart disease was in third place. Congenital he art disease, myocarditis, cardiac dysrhythmia without organic heart disease , cardiomyopathy and endocarditis increased, rheumatic heart disease, pulmo nary heart disease and hypertensive heart disease apparently decreased; syp hilitic heart disease could rarely be encountered. Conclusion China is now facing a low overall death rate, a long life expect ancy and an aging population. The incidence of heart diseases increased gra dually and patterns of heart diseases kept changing. The overall trend is t hat heart diseases which were not related to infection are increasing while heart diseases related to bacterial infection are decreasing.