Prevalence of heart disease demonstrated in 60 years of the Arquivos Brasileiros de Cardiologia.

Considering the historical and academic relevance of the Brazilian Archives of Cardiology (ABC), as its MEDLINE indexing began in 1950, it was assumed as a hypothesis that the analysis of the publications over the last 60 years could reflect the changing trends of heart disease in Brazil. The study data were collected using a program developed for this purpose, allowing the automatic extraction of information from the MEDLINE database. The study information were collected by searching "Brazilian Archives of Cardiology AND selected parameter in English". Four observational groups were determined: (1) major groups of heart diseases (coronary artery disease, valvular heart disease, congenital heart disease and cardiomyopathies); (2) relevant diseases in clinical practice (cardiac arrhythmias, cor pulmonale, myocardial infarction and congestive heart failure); (3) cardiovascular risk factors (hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia and atherosclerosis); and (4) group determined due to the growing trend of publications on congestive heart failure seen in previous groups (congestive heart failure, myocardial infarction, rheumatic heart disease and Chagasic heart disease) All publications within the established groups were described, highlighting the increasing importance of heart failure and diabetes as risk factors. A relatively easy search was carried out, using the computer program developed for literature search covering six decades. Emphasizing the limitations of the study, we suggest the existence of an epidemiological link between cardiac diseases that are prevalent in Brazil and the publications of the Brazilian Archives of Cardiology.