Coronary heart disease: black-white differences

Abstract

Important features of the racial patterns in CHD at the present time are summarized in Table 15-10. Many of these conclusions follow inevitably from the economic disadvantage suffered by blacks, and the overwhelming importance of hypertension in this population. More knowledge is needed regarding the value of standard diagnostic tools in distinguishing noncoronary from coronary chest pain symptoms. A hard look is also needed at questions of access for blacks, particularly to angioplasty and thrombolytic therapy. There is additional growing evidence that the gains against CHD have been concentrated primarily among the educated and affluent. New strategies will need to be developed if we are to repeat the kind of gains against cardiovascular disease among blacks in the 1990s that were made in the 1970s and 1980s.