Why do Indians get more heart disease?

The findings run counter to the widespread belief that Indians experience more heart disease as a result of the narrow diameter of their arteries.

According to a study from the Department of Cardiology and Radiology at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Delhi, India, Indians are more likely to develop coronary artery disease (heart disease) due to their smaller body surface area than they are due to their smaller artery diameters.

The investigation, which involved 250 patients, was written up in the Journal of the Indian College of Cardiology.

The findings run counter to the widespread belief that Indians experience more heart disease as a result of the narrow diameter of their arteries. Researchers discovered that 51% of participants had hypertension, 18% had diabetes, 4% smoked, 28% had dyslipidemia, and 26% had a family history of heart disease, according to Dr. JPS Sawhney, the paper’s primary author and chairman of the department of cardiology at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.

The study discovered that the mean vessel diameters for men were substantially greater than those for women, but when indexed to body surface area, these values are not significant, according to Dr. Ashwani Mehta, author and senior consultant, Department of Cardiology, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.
There was a presumption that because Asians, particularly Indians, have small coronary artery widths, they are more likely to develop atherosclerosis (fatty deposits in arteries).

Furthermore, it is demonstrated from the observational study that the Indian population’s tiny body surface area, not their coronary artery diameters, is to blame for this condition. In the Indian population, the theory that narrow arteries are a risk factor for heart disease is unfounded.

“This study was done to estimate the size of normal coronary arteries in the Indian population, index it to BSA, and see if there is any significant difference when compared to the caucasian population. This study also might provide some insight into the use of diameters indexed to BSA as a cutoff for deciding the need for re-vascularization (a procedure that can restore blood flow in blocked arteries or veins),” Dr. Bhuvnesh Kandpal another author of the paper, added.