CORRESPONDENCE: LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Quotations From Anticipated Coronary Heart Disease Mortality Trends
Andreas Stang, MD, MPH*
* Sektion Klinische Epidemiologie, Institut für Medizinische Epidemiologie, Biometrie und Informatik, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Magdeburger Str. 8, 06097 Halle (Saale), Germany (Email: andreas.stang{at}medizin.uni-halle.de).
In a recent editorial published in the Journal, Greenland and Lloyd-Jones (1) commented on coronary heart disease mortality trends in the U.S. (2). They quoted an editorial by Brown and Goldstein (3) by stating that these authors were "proclaiming the ‘end of heart attacks by the century.' " The original editorial by Brown and Goldstein (3) precisely stated that "recent breakthroughs ... may well end coronary disease as a major public health problem early in the next century." Brown and Goldstein were also said to predict "that current knowledge, if fully applied, could end heart attacks within a short time" (1). Brown and Goldstein (3) did not proclaim the end of heart attacks and used vague language ("may") to stress the speculative nature of their beliefs. The eye-catching title of Brown and Goldstein's editorial "Heart Attacks: Gone With the Century?" (3) is formulated as a question only. Furthermore, if the incidence, mortality, adverse quality of life, and high costs of coronary heart disease were markedly diminished and no longer a major public health problem, this would not necessarily imply that heart attacks would no longer occur.
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1. Greenland P, Lloyd-Jones D. Time to end the mixed—and often incorrect—messages about prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease J Am Coll Cardiol 2007;50:2133-2135.[Free Full Text]2. Ford ES, Capewell S. Coronary heart disease mortality among young adults in the U.S. from 1980 through 2002: concealed levelling of mortality rates J Am Coll Cardiol 2007;50:2128-2132.[Abstract/Free Full Text] 3. Brown MS, Goldstein JL. Heart attacks: gone with the century? Science 1996;272:629.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]
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