[Pilot study for the registration of acute myocardial infarction in the Liège area (Belgium)].

Background: In 1998, a permanent registry of myocardial infarction was developed in the Liège area (Belgium) to provide updated, exhaustive and validated data on the morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular causes, to define the patients' profile, to identify myocardial infarction therapeutic strategies and to complete and make comparisons with data collected in other parts of the country through methodologically identical registers.

Methods: All acute coronary events lethal or non lethal among individuals from both genders aged from 25 to 69 years and living in the area were registered according to the methodology developed for the MONICA project (Multinational Monitoring of Trends and Determinants in Cardiovascular Diseases) of WHO. The three main selected data sources were: death certificates, general practitioners and cardiologists, hospitals.