Heart Disease

1900-1902

I have been consistently interested in the rampant diagnosis of “heart disease” and “heart trouble,” especially in the cases of seemingly healthy men and women in their twenties and thirties.  While I am well aware that heart disease is a huge health problem to this very day, I still do not fully believe that 22-year-old women were dying from heart disease at the rate that these records have recorded.  Either many people living in Pittsburgh in 1900 were greatly obese, or for lack of a better diagnosis, the coroners attributed deaths that were from, say, asthma or cancer to heart disease.  This is one of those annoying medical histories we will probably never know the answer to.  Occasionally the weight and height of these deceased are included, and they never seem to really be that remarkably overweight, at least enough to culminate in a young death.  I understand that heart disease is also often genetic, but I suppose that I will never be able to find hereditary factors in these death records.  I am sure that another contributing factor I do not have access to is their condition of life and the nutrition that they did (or did not) receive. 

1905-1920

Heart disease generally happened to those in their late 30s up through those in their 70s. For people who lived that long, the cause of death was generally they "dropped dead” or “heart failure” or “apoplexy.”  There were not very many cases of those who lived until their 60s, though.

1926-1928

I have noticed that deaths from heart disease were consistently called myocarditis in the late 1920s. Myocarditis seemed to be the new catch-all term for any deaths due to heart problems. I found teenagers as young as seventeen to seniors as old as eighty with a cause of death being myocarditis. The trend shows that the new name for heart disease in the late 1920s is now know as myocardistis, or the inflammation of the heart.

1938-39

Myocarditis remains the common term, although "coronary occlusion" and "cerebral hemorrhage" have become more frequent causes of death, probably the result of better diagnosis or autopsy techniques.

1957

In July of this year, a 16-year-old Aliquippa girl died of a coronary occlusion at Raccoon State Park while vacationing there with two friends.  While coronary occlusions are quite rampant during this time period, it is highly unusual to see someone so young died of such a cause.  The only reasonable conclusion is that the girl had a prior heart condition, since even being overweight should not have affected her at this young of an age.  195707_31

MWB 23 Jan 2008

1964

A 75-year-old man who is very active for his age rushes to his neighbor's house to help extinguish a fire. As he battles the flames, his heart fails and he collapses. Later, it was discovered that some burglars had intentionally started the fire in an attempt to cover-up their crime. I am impressed with this elderly man's actions, and think that his demise was quite noble and brave.     196403_75

RB 15 April 2008

1970

Out of a sample of 50 files that I looked at from this year, 24 of the deaths were attributed to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease. This large number struck me as unusual, as it is uncommon to see such a high concentration of one type of death. I am not sure why so many people suffered from this disease . . . I cannot help but think that some of these cases must have been misdiagnoses. I am curious as to whether this percentage accurately reflects the entire year or if this sample was just an anomaly.

RLM 08 Jun 08