[Prevention of ischemic heart disease--experiences and conclusions from the Erfurt intervention study]

The concept of the primary prevention of the ischaemic heart disease by modification of the main factors of risk smoking of cigarettes, hypercholesterolaemia and high blood pressure at present got an up to now not achieved degree of probability. Nowadays we no more doubt about the fact that profound changes of nutrition, on optimum treatment of hypertension and a regression of the consumption of cigarettes might have a clear influence on case rates and mortality rates of ischaemic heart disease, but also of other chronic diseases. Also for our country the principal possibility of a preventive influence was confirmed (Erfurt intervention study). The prevention of the ischaemic heart disease by modification of the main factors of risk as an integrated constituent of medical activity by far more than up to now must be introduced into the principal medical care. But in the first place prevention is also a task of the state and the whole society.