Mortality from pulmonary heart disease in Japan, 1979-2006

In Japan, there have been no reports on the time-trends of mortality rates from pulmonary heart disease without pulmonary embolism (PHD). Our aim was to examine the annual changes of mortality in Japan.

Annual age-adjusted and age-specific PHD mortality for Japanese residents during 1979-2006 were calculated from "Vital statistics of Japan" and census data and population estimates for intercensal years.

The number of age-adjusted deaths from PHD continued to decrease throughout the study period. The age-specific mortality from PHD increased throughout the life span except below 1 year old and decreased in recent years. Male mortality was greater at most ages. In Poisson regression analysis, the relative risk of death from PHD was increased in males and the aged except below 1 year-age, and decreased in recent years. The annual number of deaths from idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension/heritable pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH/HPAH) continued to increase throughout the study period. The number of annual new cases with IPAH/HPAH was estimated to be about 400 in a recent period of 10 years.

The annual number of deaths from PHD decreased, and those from IPAH/HPAH increased significantly during 1979-2006 in Japan.