This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

New Perspectives and Directions

Bernard Lown, MD; Ali M. Fakhro, MD; William B. Hood, Jr., MD; George W. Thorn, MD

JAMA. 1967;199(3):188-198.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

In the past two decades there have been momentous advances in the care of patients with cardiovascular ailments. Yet, mortality from coronary-artery disease has remained unaffected. Year after year myocardial infarction and its complications exact the highest toll of any single disease.¹ In large metropolitan hospitals, the death rate from this condition 30 years ago ranged from 30% to 40% and remains unaltered today. Certain facts are forcing reevaluation of the problem. Peak mortality occurs at the very onset of myocardial infarction and then recedes almost exponentially, with 65% of deaths occurring in the initial three days and 85% during the first week of attack. Arrhythmias probably account for 40% of deaths. Of these about two thirds are due to ventricular fibrillation and one third to bradycardia, heart block, and asystole.² It is well established that these electrical catastrophes are usually not due to irreversible cardiac damage. On . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Medical Clinics, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, and the Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health (Drs. Lown, Fakhro, and Hood), and the Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School (Dr. Thorn), Boston.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to 665 Huntington Ave, Boston 02115 (Dr. Lown).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?