The current state of cardiology in China

Cardiology in China has shown significant changes in the last decade or so. Interventional cardiology, in particular, has shown remarkable advances, especially in the management of coronary artery disease, which, unfortunately, has shown a disconcerting increase in incidence in a country traditionally known for very low incidence of coronary artery disease. Important contributing factors include increasing affluence, westernization of dietary habit and lifestyle, and rampant cigarette smoking. At present, the Chinese population has an annual coronary mortality of one sixth of that reported in the West, an incidence of acute myocardial infarction of one tenth to one eighth, and a mortality of acute myocardial infarction of one eighth. The prevalence of coronary artery disease among the general Chinese population (3–7%) is roughly one quarter of that among the Caucasians in the West, but this will get worse for sure. China still has a lot of catching up to do to reach full modernization. There is a price that every developing country must pay for modernization. However, let the price the Chinese pay not exceed the benefits derived from modernization. Can we achieve a utopian stage in the 21st century in which the modern Chinese retain their ancestral low rates of coronary artery disease while adapting the positive aspects of a modern western lifestyle?