JUSTIFICATION

Diseases of the circulatory system are the main cause of death in Spain. Of these diseases isquaemic cardiopathy (IC) caused more than 32,000 deaths in 2004. Ageing tends to increase the incidence and lethality of IC, as well as death from it, one of the most common pathologies in those over 65. The ageing of the population will lead to an increase in the number of cases. It is predicted that in the year 2020 IC will still be the main cause of death in the industrial countries and it will become the third cause in developing countries.

According to the official death-rate figures in Spain, in the year 2000 IC was responsible for the deaths of 22,072 men and 16,616 women with an unadjusted death-rate of 114 for every 100,000 men and 82 for every 100,000 women. IC is the main individual cause of death in men and the second in women, being responsible for 12% and 9% respectively of deaths. In addition, IC is responsible for a large number of deaths among young people, making it the second cause, after traffic accidents, in terms of potential years lost.

Data of incidence at present available in the Spanish population are the result of studies done by OMS-MONICA-Cataluña  (part of the province of Barcelona with some 800,000 inhabitants), REGICOR, Gerona HEART Register (the area of Girona with some 550,000 inhabitants), and IBERICA (seven regions of Spain: Castilla La Mancha, Girona, Mallorca, Murcia, Navarra, País Vasco and Valencia, with a total of some 8,000,000 inhabitants). Between 1990 and 1992 the accumulated incidence rate (new or recurrent cases that were certain, possible or with insufficient data in accordance with the MONICA classification) grouped by age in Girona residents between the ages of 35 and 64  (REGICOR study) was 200 cases per 100,000 in men and 31,000 cases per 100,000 in women. In the MONICA-Cataluña study between 1985 and 1994 these rates were 210 per 100,000 inhabitants in men and 34 per 100,000 in women. In the IBERICA study the accumulated incidence in the population between the ages of 25 and 74 in the study as a whole in 1997 was 194 AMI/100,000  inhabitants a year in men and 38 AMI/100,000 inhabitants a year in women.