The main aim of this study is to analyse causes of permanent disability of insurants of Canton Sarajevo in the period of 7 years. Following conditions were followed up: disease, occupational disease, injuries at work and not-related to work. The study included 7.136 insurants with verified loss of working ability: 4.864 males aged 51.6 (+/-7.6) years with an average achievemnt of 24.9 (+/-8.6) years of paid retirement insurance and 2.272 females aged 49.8 (+/- 6.5) years with 21.5 (+/- 7.4) years of work experience. We confirmed that the chronic disease was the dominant cause of permanent disability in the productive age group. The leading causes of disability, according to the World Health Organization International Classification of Diseases, ICD-10, are mental and behavioural disorders (36.3%) followed by diseases of the circulatory system (29.5%). Our study indicates the need for more efforts in preventive measures and more effective treatment of the mental and behavioural as well as diseases of the circulatory system in order to reduce morbidity and disability of the actively working population in the Canton Sarajevo.

We evaluated electrocardiographic and echocardiographic changes of 40 patients with pulmonary thrombo-embolism proved by perfusion scintigrams. ECG-changes included sinus tachycardia or absolute tachyarrhythmia de novo, changes type Q1S3T3 and changes in right precordial leads. Analyses of echocardiography included hyperkinesis and then dilatation and apical hypokinesis of right ventricule and tricuspid regurgitation with maximal transvalvular gradients. We emphasize such a sensibility of echocardiographic changes in early estimation of pulmonary thrombo-embolism severity and necessity for echocardiography as early as possible in suspected patients.

The aim of this study was to assess working ability of persons suffering from some of essential hypertension (EH) complications in Canton Sarajevo in the period of two years (01.01.1998-31.12.1999). Recorded complications included: congestive heart failure (CHF), heart attack (HA), angina pectoris (AP) and cerebrovascular disease (CVD). The study included 606 persons with EH with clinically verified complications, out of whom there were 416 males of average age of 53.4 (+/- 14.7) years, and 190 females of average age of 50.3 (+/- 12.8) years. There were 377 (62.2%) persons assessed with complete loss of working capability, 126 (20.8%) with limited working capability and only 103 (16.9%) were found without disability in regard to the tasks required in their job description. It was confirmed that EH complications have significant impact to disability among insurants in their most productive working age. CHF is the leading cause of complete loss of working capability, particularly in the group of labour workers with low qualification structure, followed by CVD, HA and AP. Disability-loss and limited working capability was dependant on sex, age, type of complication, qualification structure and the type of occupation. The results of this study indicate urgent need for establishing a more efficient concept of primary prevention as well as better and comprehensive treatment of the EH in order to reduce morbidity and disability among the working age population.