Aggregation of coronary risk factors in families of men with fatal and non-fatal coronary heart disease.

The occurrence of main coronary risk factors was assessed in the families of 211 men under age 56 from East Finland. Fifty men were survivors of a recent myocardial infarction, 55 had died of myocardial infarction, 53 suffered from uncomplicated angina, and 53 were healthy reference men. Familial hyperlipidaemia was twice and familial hypertension three times as common in case as in reference families; other risk factors were equally common in both. Familial hypercholesterolaemia was commonest in the families of men with fatal myocardial infarction, and multiple type familial hyperlipidaemia in those of men with angina. Any increase in familial aggregation of coronary heart disease was invariably paralleled by increased aggregation of hyperlipidaemia and hypertension, with the most impressive aggregation of both traits in case families with a maternal history of early coronary death. It is concluded that most of the familial aggregation of coronary heart disease is mediated by familial aggregations of hyperlipidaemia and hypertension.