A. Incidence
Atherosclerosis dates back to ancient civilization and lesions have been found in arteries of Egyptian mummies. Obstruction of arteries by plaques of atheroma (athero¬sclerosis) is the basis for cardiovascular disease which accounts for approximately 40% of all deaths in western world and Europe. This single disease is the most common cause of death, particularly premature death, in indus¬trialized countries. During the past decade the incidence of coronary artery disease has declined a little in most developed countries, still, there has been an increased incidence in many countries in eastern Europe and Asia.
The geographic variation in deaths from coronary artery disease is shown in Fig. 1 and Table 1 in chapter entitled ‘‘Angina.’’ In 1990, the annual mortality from cardiovas¬cular disease worldwide was 14.3 million in a population of 5.3 billion; this mortality will exceed 25 million in 2025, approximately 37% of the total 68 million deaths in a population of about 7.8 billion.
Of the estimated 1.1 million Americans who have a myocardial infarction annually, 650,000 are first-time events and 450,000 are recurrences. More than 45% of these events are fatal and associated with ventricular fibrillation.

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