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(Circulation. 2008;118:2669-2671.)
© 2008 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorial

Heart Disease in Asia

Shigetake Sasayama

From Doshisha University, Department of Life and Medical Science, Kyotanabe, Kyoto, Japan.

Correspondence to Shigetake Sasayama, Doshisha University, Department of Life and Medical Science, Tatara Miyakodani Kyotanabe, Kyoto 610–0321, Japan. E-mail sasayama@wonder.ocn.ne.jp

Key Words: Editorials • Asia • heart disease

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

	Introduction

 

People desirous of knowing the diversities of the races of mankind, as well as the diversities of regions of all parts of the East, read through this book and you will find in it the greatest and most marvelous characteristics of the people ...

From the Prologue to The Travels of Marco Polo

With the advent of an aging society, heart disease has become one of the most important health problems worldwide. Heart disease is estimated to increase continuously during the next few decades. In fact, the number of people 60 years of age is expected to double by 2025 and to triple by 2050 globally.¹ The proportion of this aged population is likely to increase more in the Asian-Pacific region; thus, half of the world’s cardiovascular burden is predicted to occur in this area.²

	Risk Factors of Cardiovascular Diseases

 
Increases in levels of risk factors, in particular total cholesterol and blood pressure, appear to account for a substantial amount of the age-related increase in coronary heart disease. This themed issue highlights the perspective for the contributions of risk factors to the excess coronary heart disease mortality in populations of the Asia-Pacific region. Cardiovascular risk factors are traditionally derived from studies in whites. However, relationships between these traditional risk factors and cardiovascular disease may differ in Asian and Western societies. The ethnic differences in the association between diabetes mellitus and ischemic heart disease are noted even within Asian populations.³ In Asian countries, as a consequence of the economic developments, the prevalence of overweight and obesity . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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