Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) - Epidemiology Forecast to 2023

Monday 21 July 2014, Amsterdam

Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is a serious cardiovascular disease associated with high healthcare costs, frequent recurrences and hospitalizations, and high risks of sudden death and short-term mortality. The ACS incidence increases with age and will be a significant public health problem as the elderly population increases around the world.

ACS is classified into three disease entities based on evidence of heart muscle damage inferred from a person’s symptoms, changes in the ST-tracing of the electrocardiogram (ECG), and levels of cardiac biomarkers that signify heart muscle death: ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI), and unstable angina (UA).

These three disease entities differ in their clinical characteristics, treatment approaches, and survival probabilities. This report provides an overview of the ACS risk factors and comorbidities, a discussion of the ACS global and historical trends, and a 10-year epidemiological patient forecast for ACS from 2013 to 2023 in the seven major markets (7MM) (US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, and Japan).

The epidemiological patient forecast includes:

• Hospitalized incident cases of ACS, segmented by STEMI, NSTEMI, and UA
• ACS cases that survived until hospital discharge, segmented by STEMI, NSTEMI, and UA  
• ACS cases that survived for one year post-hospital discharge, segmented by STEMI, NSTEMI, and UA
• Diagnosed prevalent cases of myocardial infarction (MI) segmented by STEMI and NSTEMI from 2013 to 2023 in the six major markets (6MM) (US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and UK)

Belo mentioned figure presents the forecast for the hospitalized incident ACS cases in the 7MM for men and women ages ≥25 years for 2013 and 2023. In the 7MM, the hospitalized incident cases of ACS will increase from 1.29 million cases in 2013 to 1.47 million cases in 2023 at the rate of 1.40% per year.

The US constitutes around 40% of the total hospitalized incident ACS cases in the 7MM and will be the market with the highest number of cases during the forecast period.

The majority of the cases occurred in men (58.15%) and in those ages ≥65 years (69.34%). For the 7MM, about 33% of the ACS cases were STEMI, 44% were NSTEMI, and 23% were UA. The proportions varied depending on the market.