Assessment of acute myocardial infarction in Japan by the Japanese Coronary Intervention Study (JCIS) Group.
BACKGROUND
Until now, large-scale nationwide surveys of acute myocardial infarction (AMI), such as those performed in Europe and America, have not been performed in Japan. Therefore, in 2000 the Japanese Coronary Intervention Study (JCIS) group conducted a nationwide survey on the incidence of AMI in Japan.


RESULTS
Questionnaires were collected from 8,268 facilities throughout Japan. The total annual number of patients with AMI was 66,459 (52.4 patients/10(5) population), and the AMI incidence rate in Japan was approximately 25% of that in the United States. Most facilities with AMI patients treated less than 50 AMI patients annually, and that number was 45.0% of total AMI patients. The incidence of AMI patients was highest in Kochi, Kumamoto, and Wakayama prefectures, and lowest in Yamanashi, Saitama and Shiga prefectures. The ratio of the highest incidence to the lowest incidence was 2.0. A significant correlation was observed between the mean age of the prefectural population, as a coronary risk factor, and the incidence of AMI.


CONCLUSIONS
The incidence of AMI in Japan is approximately 25% that in the United States and it varies considerably among the prefectures, one of the causes being the difference in the mean age. This provides important information for assessing the guidelines for Japanese patients with AMI.
Nishigaki
Kazuhiko
K
Second Department of Internal Medicine, Gifu University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan.
Yamazaki
Tsutomu
T
Fukunishi
Masanori
M
Tanihata
Shintaro
S
Fujiwara
Hisayoshi
H
D000367:Age Factors; D015906:Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000601:surgery; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D019371:Topography, Medical