Do Indo-Asians have smaller coronary arteries?
G Y H Lip, V S Rathore, R Katira, R D S Watson, S P Singh
Department of
Cardiology and University Department of Medicine, City Hospital,
Birmingham B18 7QH, UK
Accepted 10 February
1999
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
© 1999 by The Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine
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