Economic Challenge of Cardiovascular Disease

Coronary artery disease is the most common cause of death in developed countries worldwide. Reducing, therefore, mortality and morbidity for this condition is one of the most important current challenges of medical practice. An important factor to be discussed as to the benefit of cardiovascular disease prevention is that a high percentage of cases of acute myocardial infarction are unnoticed. Another important data is the progressive “improvement” of living conditions, “aging” our population and thus making it more susceptible to the occurrence not only of coronary disease, but also of brain-vascular events and peripheral arterial pathologies. The complexity of the process involved between the manifestations of coronary artery disease and death allows us to visualize the importance of preventing this pathology and how we can act by reducing costs when we can mitigate the cascade of evolution of coronary artery disease complicators.

Keywords: Epidemiology; Cardiovascular disease; Health economics; Coronary disease; Prevention

Abbreviations: AMI: Acute Myocardial Infarction; CAD: Coronary Artery Disease; CVD: Cardiovascular Disease