Life expectancy rises as a result; typical patients are older.

Death rates for cardiovascular disease (CVD) declined 17 percent in the decade between 1990 and 2000, according to recently released figures from the American Heart Association.

One of the first complete snapshots of heart health in the 1990s reveals almost revolutionary change during the decade in prevention and treatment strategies (Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics — 2003 Update). “We’re caring for a larger number of elderly patients now than we did in the early 1990s,” says Dr. Richard A. Stein, M.D., chief of cardiology at the Brooklyn Hospital Center and a spokesperson for the AHA. “The typical patient I’m seeing now has had moderate or significant heart disease for five to…

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