Arteriosclerotic heart disease (coronary artery disease) — VA Diagnostic Code 7005

Note (1): Evaluate cor pulmonale, which is a form of secondary heart disease, as part of the pulmonary condition that causes it.

Note (2): One MET (metabolic equivalent) is the energy cost of standing quietly at rest and represents an oxygen uptake of 3.5 milliliters per kilogram of body weight per minute. When the level of METs at which breathlessness, fatigue, angina, dizziness, or syncope develops is required for evaluation, and a laboratory determination of METs by exercise testing cannot be done for medical reasons, a medical examiner may estimate the level of activity (expressed in METs and supported by specific examples, such as slow stair climbing or shoveling snow) that results in those symptoms.

Note (3): For this general formula, heart failure symptoms include, but are not limited to, breathlessness, fatigue, angina, dizziness, arrhythmia, palpitations, or syncope.

DC 7005 note: If non-service-connected arteriosclerotic heart disease is superimposed on service-connected valvular or other non-arteriosclerotic heart disease, request a medical opinion as to which condition is causing the current signs and symptoms.

Heart Conditions is a public form. On VA’s public Disability Benefits Questionnaires page, checked October 5, 2026, it is listed under Cardiovascular. The form itself is Heart Conditions. That page asks a veteran to have a health care provider fill out the public forms. Heart Conditions is not on the list of questionnaires that page says are not available for public use.

38 CFR § 4.100(b) requires METs testing in all cases, even when the 10 percent line (continuous medication) or the 30 percent line (cardiac hypertrophy or dilatation) is already met, except when there is a medical contraindication or when a 100 percent evaluation can be assigned on another basis. Note (2) of the General Rating Formula is the examiner-estimate rule: when a laboratory determination of METs by exercise testing cannot be done for medical reasons, a medical examiner may estimate the level of activity, expressed in METs and supported by specific examples, such as slow stair climbing or shoveling snow.

The DC 7005 note tells the rating activity to request a medical opinion when non-service-connected arteriosclerotic heart disease is superimposed on service-connected valvular or other non-arteriosclerotic heart disease, on the question of which condition is causing the current signs and symptoms.

38 CFR § 3.309(a) lists “Arteriosclerosis” and “Cardiovascular-renal disease, including hypertension” among the chronic diseases, on the time limits in § 3.307. Paragraph (a)(3) says the disease must have become manifest to a degree of 10 percent or more within 1 year (for Hansen's disease (leprosy) and tuberculosis, within 3 years; multiple sclerosis, within 7 years) from the date of separation from service.

38 CFR § 3.309(c)(1) says that if a veteran is a former prisoner of war, the diseases in that paragraph shall be service connected if manifest to a degree of disability of 10 percent or more at any time after discharge or release from active military, naval, air, or space service even though there is no record of such disease during service, provided the rebuttable presumption provisions of § 3.307 are also satisfied. The list includes “Atherosclerotic heart disease or hypertensive vascular disease (including hypertensive heart disease) and their complications (including myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, arrhythmia).” Paragraph (c)(1) does not set an internment length. Paragraph (c)(2) is a separate list, and it applies when the former prisoner of war “was interned or detained for not less than 30 days.” Atherosclerotic heart disease is not on the paragraph (c)(2) list. 38 CFR § 3.307(a)(5) says the diseases listed in § 3.309(c) shall have become manifest to a degree of 10 percent or more at any time after discharge or release from active service.

Section 3.309(e) lists, for herbicide exposure when § 3.307(a)(6) is met, “Ischemic heart disease (including, but not limited to, acute, subacute, and old myocardial infarction; atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease including coronary artery disease (including coronary spasm) and coronary bypass surgery; and stable, unstable and Prinzmetal's angina).” Note 2 says the term ischemic heart disease does not include hypertension or peripheral manifestations of arteriosclerosis such as peripheral vascular disease or stroke, or any other condition that does not qualify within the generally accepted medical definition of Ischemic heart disease.

38 CFR § 3.310(c) says ischemic heart disease or other cardiovascular disease developing in a veteran who has a service-connected amputation of one lower extremity at or above the knee, or service-connected amputations of both lower extremities at or above the ankles, shall be held to be the proximate result of the service-connected amputation or amputations. Other secondary questions use § 3.310(a) and (b).