Myocardial infarction and cerebral infarction in a Danish suburban community.
A comparison was made of 485 cases of cerebral infarction (CI), registered prospectively in Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, with 495 cases of myocardial infarction (AMI), recorded retrospectively in the same population. The overall annual incidence of AMI was 6.5 per 1,000 population for males, 3.8 for females; the rates for CI were 2.4 and 2.5, respectively. The age-incidence curves, particularly those for AMI, were significantly steeper in the females than in the males. Correspondingly, the male predominance in the AMI-group subsided with age. Age-specific incidence-rates rose exponentially with advancing age; for each sex and diagnosis the relationship can thus be expressed as a simple mathematical formula, which may facilitate comparisons of incidence patterns in different communities. Theories explaining the similarities and differences of the age-incidence curves for AMI and CI are discussed.
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002544:Cerebral Infarction / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003718:Denmark; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012737:Sex Factors