Cardiovascular diseases in China.

Abstract Patients with organic heart disease constitute about 5 per cent of all hospital admissions in China. The relative incidence is as follows: rheumatic heart disease, 35 to 50 per cent; hypertensive heart disease, 11 to 40 per cent; atherosclerotic heart disease, 7 to 16 per cent; chronic pulmonary disease, 6 to 10 per cent; syphilitic heart disease, 2 to 6 per cent; and congenital heart disease, 4 to 7 per cent. Other conditions involving the heart have been reported. These include pulmonary edema of high altitude, cardiac arrhythmias following antimony treatment for schistosomiasis and Kershan disease. The last is a disease caused either by fungi poisoning or a rodent-born virus which produces acute or chronic myocardial necrosis. Progress and development in research and cardiovascular surgery are discussed.