Considering the historical and academic relevance of the Brazilian Archives of
Cardiology (ABC), as its MEDLINE indexing began in 1950, it was assumed as a
hypothesis that the analysis of the publications over the last 60 years could reflect
the changing trends of heart disease in Brazil.The study data were collected using a program developed for this purpose, allowing
the automatic extraction of information from the MEDLINE database. The study
information were collected by searching "Brazilian Archives of Cardiology AND
selected parameter in English". Four observational groups were determined: (1) major
groups of heart diseases (coronary artery disease, valvular heart disease, congenital
heart disease and cardiomyopathies); (2) relevant diseases in clinical practice
(cardiac arrhythmias, cor pulmonale, myocardial infarction and congestive heart
failure); (3) cardiovascular risk factors (hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia and
atherosclerosis); and (4) group determined due to the growing trend of publications
on congestive heart failure seen in previous groups (congestive heart failure,
myocardial infarction, rheumatic heart disease and Chagasic heart disease)All publications within the established groups were described, highlighting the
increasing importance of heart failure and diabetes as risk factors. A relatively
easy search was carried out, using the computer program developed for literature
search covering six decades. Emphasizing the limitations of the study, we suggest the
existence of an epidemiological link between cardiac diseases that are prevalent in
Brazil and the publications of the Brazilian Archives of Cardiology.