ALCOHOL-RELATED DISEASES ASSOCIATED WITH ISCHAEMIC HEART DISEASE: A THREE-YEAR FOLLOW-UP OF MIDDLE-AGED MALE HOSPITAL PATIENTS

Mortality and morbidity from ischaemic heart disease (IHD) wasstudied in 5404 Finnish males aged 35–64 years who hadbeen hospitalised for alcohol-related disease in 1972 withoutany admissions for IHD during that same period. By record-linkage,morbidity and mortality were followed up to the end of 1975.The mortality of patients with alcohol-related diseases wascompared to 1120 patients with acute appendicitis by calculatingindirectly age-standardised mortality ratios (SMR). The mortalityand morbidity of 5963 patients with acute myocardial infarctionor angina pectoris was also studied. The following SMRs forIHD mortality, non-fatal-MD-hospitalisation and for mortalityfrom all causes respectively, were found: acute myocardial infarction11.6, 7.2 and 7.2; alcohol intoxication 6.0, 4.5 and 4.5; anginapectoris 5.2, 10.5 and 3.4; liver cirrhosis 2.2, 2.5 and 11.8;alcoholism 1.9, 1.9 and 3.6; pancreatitis 1.8, 1.2 and 4.4;alcohol psychosis 1.7, 2.5 and 4.2. IHD mortality and morbidityappeared to be more prevalent in patients hospitalised withalcohol intoxication than in patients with other alcohol-relateddiseases. This suggests that rapid drinking predisposes bothto serious intoxication and to fatal disturbances of cardiacrhythm