Table 1 Characteristics of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patient data sources in the five cities, and number of hospital admissions for first AMI during the study period.

Data sources				Admissions
City	Register type	Age range	Years	Admissions, n	Days with no admissions (%)	Days with ⩾5 admissions (%)	Men (%)	Age ⩾65 (%)
Augsburg	AMI register	35–74	1995–99	1694	39.8	0.38	74.6	38.6
Barcelona	AMI register	35–79	1992–95	1467	27.0	0.78	77.7	46.4
Helsinki	Hospital discharge register	35–	1993–99	5148	13.6	5.72	52.1	71.7
Rome	Hospital discharge register	35–	1998–2000	8799	0.27	87.0	67.4	61.4
Stockholm	Hospital discharge register	35–	1994–99	9746	1.14	45.2	57.2	78.5