Overview

This book has "wide geography" both literally and figuratively. First of all, this book brings together contributions from around the world, both from post-industrial countries and developing world. This is natural, because coronary artery disease is becoming pandemic worldwide. CAD is the single most frequent cause of death in developed countries, causes about 1 in every 5 deaths. Mortality from cardiovascular disease is predicted to reach 23.4 million in 2030. Moreover, in the developing world, cardiovascular disease tends to affect people at a younger age and thus could negatively affect the workforce and economic productivity. The morbidity, mortality, and socioeconomic importance of CAD make its diagnosis and management fundamental for all practicing physicians. On another hand, the book widely represents "geography" of CAD itself, i.e. many various aspects of its pathophysiology, epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment are touched in this book. This book does not pretend on complete and integral description of the Coronary artery disease. Rather, it contains selected issues on this complex multifactorial disease. Nevertheless, we hope that readers will find Coronary Artery Disease useful for clinical practice and further research.