[Trends of cardiovascular diseases in B&H and Europe]

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading cause of death in developed countries and in most developing countries. They represent an important cause of loss of working ability, invalidity, hospitalization and increase of health care costs. Annually, about 20 million people dies from CVDs, and projections says that by the year 2020 25 million people will be casualties from it. Mortality increase from CVDs will be markedly higher in non-developed than in developed countries, which is due to changes in the population structure, prevalence of risk factor and insufficient preventive activity. Last fifty years morbidity and mortality of CVD in B&H are in increasing and follow trends in countries in transition.