Abstract

This paper presents an investigation into the relative frequency of deaths from coronary artery disease and from congestive cardiac failure associated with or secondary to chronic lung disease in 367 men with pneumoconiosis. All these men had been receiving a pension for pneumoconiosis and had died in the area served by the Birmingham Pneumoconiosis Medical Panel during 1967 and 1968. Of the total, 76 died from coronary artery disease and 107 from congestive cardiac failure. Thirty-one men had simple pneumoconiosis alone, and of these 87% died from coronary artery disease and 13% from congestive cardiac failure. Sixty-one men had progressive massive fibrosis, and of these 10% died from coronary artery disease and 90% from congestive cardiac failure. Ninety-one men had simple pneumoconiosis with bronchitis and emphysema and in this group death occurred in approximately equal numbers from both causes. It is suggested that the reason for these differences is the variation in the degree of hypoxia present in the different conditions.