India Health & Wellness blog

Risk of cardiac arrest is higher for Indians

5th January, 2010 - Posted by admin -

MUMBAI: The death of 42-year-old SAP India CEO Ranjan Das on Wednesday underlines the fact that Indians are relatively more prone to heart

attacks at a younger age than most other groups.

Says Dr Aasish Contractor of Asian Heart Hospital in the Bandra-Kurla Complex, “It’s no longer surprising to hear that a 40-year-old person has suffered a heart attack. In hospitals, we routinely see patients who are between 40 and 50 years of age. We frequently even see patients who are between just 30 and 40 years of age.”

He cites the 52-country Inter Heart Study had a few years ago, which showed that both Indian men and women were prone to heart attacks a decade earlier than Caucasians.

Dr Ashwin Mehta, head of the cardiology department at Jaslok Hospital, points out that eight out ten heart attack patients in the ICU deny having any previous symptoms. “For them, an heart attack is the first sign of a problem,” he says.

Dr Mehta says that people who have 40% to 50% blockage in their arteries will remain asymptomatic because there is adequate blood flowing through. “However, due to a trigger, this soft plaque forming the blockage may burst and create a clot, making the blockage 100% and result in heart attack which could result in sudden death,” the doctor explained.