ABSTRACT
Disease frequency and natural history 3 Risk factors 4 Presentation 8 Investigations 8
Treatment 9 Future trends 9 References 10
In Europe, 41 million life years (47 percent) lost are due to premature death from cardiovascular disease and 11 million (13 percent) are due to premature death from coronary heart disease.1 Each year there are 213 million admissions to European hospitals due to cardiovascular disease and 69 million due to coronary heart disease. In the United Kingdom, coronary heart disease costs the healthcare system around £1750 million per year and costs the economy a further £5300 million in lost earnings and social care.2
