Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Postgraduate Medical Journal logoLink to Postgraduate Medical Journal
. 1999 Aug;75(886):463–466. doi: 10.1136/pgmj.75.886.463

Do Indo-Asians have smaller coronary arteries?

G Lip 1, V Rathore 1, R Katira 1, R Watson 1, S Singh 1
PMCID: PMC1741307  PMID: 10646023

Abstract

There is a widespread belief that coronary arteries are smaller in Indo-Asians. The aim of the present study was to compare the size of atheroma-free proximal and distal epicardial coronary arteries of Indo-Asians and Caucasians. We analysed normal coronary angiograms from 77 Caucasians and 39 Indo-Asians. The two groups were comparable for dominance of the coronary arteries. Indo-Asian patients had generally smaller coronary arteries, with a statistically significant difference in the mean diameters of the left main coronary artery, proximal, mid and left anterior descending, and proximal and distal right coronary artery segments. There was a non-significant trend towards smaller coronary artery segment diameters for the distal left anterior descending, proximal and distal circumflex, and obtuse marginal artery segments. However, after correction for body surface area, none of these differences in size were statistically significant. Thus, the smaller coronary arteries in Indo-Asian patients were explained by body size alone and were not due to ethnic origin per se. This finding nevertheless has important therapeutic implications, since smaller coronary arteries may give rise to technical difficulties during bypass graft and intervention procedures such as percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, stents and atherectomy. On smaller arteries, atheroma may also give an impression of more severe disease than on larger diameter arteries.


Keywords: Indo-Asians; coronary artery; body surface area

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (76.3 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Cruickshank J. K., Beevers D. G., Osbourne V. L., Haynes R. A., Corlett J. C., Selby S. Heart attack, stroke, diabetes, and hypertension in West Indians, Asians, and whites in Birmingham, England. Br Med J. 1980 Oct 25;281(6248):1108–1108. doi: 10.1136/bmj.281.6248.1108. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Cruickshank J. K., Jackson S. H., Beevers D. G., Bannan L. T., Beevers M., Stewart V. L. Similarity of blood pressure in blacks, whites and Asians in England: the Birmingham Factory Study. J Hypertens. 1985 Aug;3(4):365–371. doi: 10.1097/00004872-198508000-00009. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Dhawan J., Bray C. L. Are Asian coronary arteries smaller than Caucasian? A study on angiographic coronary artery size estimation during life. Int J Cardiol. 1995 May;49(3):267–269. doi: 10.1016/0167-5273(95)02315-n. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Dodge J. T., Jr, Brown B. G., Bolson E. L., Dodge H. T. Lumen diameter of normal human coronary arteries. Influence of age, sex, anatomic variation, and left ventricular hypertrophy or dilation. Circulation. 1992 Jul;86(1):232–246. doi: 10.1161/01.cir.86.1.232. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Leung W. H., Stadius M. L., Alderman E. L. Determinants of normal coronary artery dimensions in humans. Circulation. 1991 Dec;84(6):2294–2306. doi: 10.1161/01.cir.84.6.2294. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Lip G. Y., Malik I., Luscombe C., McCarry M., Beevers G. Dietary fat purchasing habits in whites, blacks and Asian peoples in England--implications for heart disease prevention. Int J Cardiol. 1995 Mar 3;48(3):287–293. doi: 10.1016/0167-5273(94)02227-a. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Lowry P. J., Mace P. J., Glover D. R., Littler W. A. The pattern and severity of coronary artery disease in Asians and whites living in Birmingham. Postgrad Med J. 1983 Oct;59(696):634–635. doi: 10.1136/pgmj.59.696.634. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. McKeigue P. M., Miller G. J., Marmot M. G. Coronary heart disease in south Asians overseas: a review. J Clin Epidemiol. 1989;42(7):597–609. doi: 10.1016/0895-4356(89)90002-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. McKeigue P. M., Shah B., Marmot M. G. Relation of central obesity and insulin resistance with high diabetes prevalence and cardiovascular risk in South Asians. Lancet. 1991 Feb 16;337(8738):382–386. doi: 10.1016/0140-6736(91)91164-p. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Pedoe H. T., Clayton D., Morris J. N., Brigden W., McDonald L. Coronary heart-attacks in East London. Lancet. 1975 Nov 1;2(7940):833–838. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(75)90233-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Saldanha R. F., Raman J., Batreddi R. V., Chang V. P. Coronary artery surgery in Asian patients. J Cardiovasc Surg (Torino) 1990 Jan-Feb;31(1):26–30. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Postgraduate Medical Journal are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES