Prevalence of coronary atherosclerosis in healthy United Kingdom aviators

The coronary arteries of 288 aircrew (135 military aircrew, 53 professional pilots, and 100 private pilots) killed in 210 aircraft accidents were examined to assess the prevalence of coronary artery disease (CAD). Included in the study were 132 controls of apparently healthy British males aged 18-62 years killed accidentally. The prevalence of significant CAD was found to be 17% in military aircrew with a mean age of 29.1 years, 24.5% in professional pilots with a mean age of 39.7 years and 22% in private pilots with a mean age of 37.2 years. In the control group, the prevalence was 18.2% with a mean age of 29.9 years. There was no evidence of a significant difference in CAD prevalence in the four groups (p greater than 0.1). The difficulties in grading CAD and comparing results with other published series is discussed. When taking the author's military aircrew and professional pilots as one group, so that the prevalence can be compared with previous UK series, it is found that prevalence of significant CAD (19%) is not significantly different from the prevalence reported two decades ago (p greater than 0.1). It is concluded that findings suggest that the prevalence of CAD is not declining in the United Kingdom.