Middle East
- Heart disease is more common in Asian Indians and occurs at a much lower age than in the native Arab population in the Middle East.1
- In a study of 2515 patients (mean age of 51 years) with documented heart attacks in Qatar, 23% of the patients were 40 years or younger. Strikingly, 71% of those who experienced heart attacks under the age of 40 were Asian Indians.1, 2 Most of the Arabs were significantly older than Indians.
- A Kuwait study of Indians with heart attacks found that smoking was very high at 71%.3 Abdominal obesity is common compared to Arabs in Kuwait and associated with dyslipidemia.4
- In a study of 60 patients less than 35 years with a first heart attack in Kuwait, patients from the Indian subcontinent had fewer conventional risk factors. Yet they had more severe disease than those from the Arab world suggesting an important role of emerging risk factors which were not evaluated.5
- The prevalence of genetic risk factors like lipoprotein(a) has not been reported from the Middle East.
Sources
1. Chouhan LK, Hajar HA, George T, Pomposiello JC. Clinical and angiographic features of patients from the Indian subcontinent treated with intravenous streptokinase for acute myocardial infarction: experience in Qatar. Angiology. 1992;43(8):641-646.
2. Chaikhouni A, Chouhan L, Pomposiello C, et al. Myocardial infarction in Qatar: the first 2515 patients. Clinical cardiology. Mar 1993;16(3):227-230.
3. Suresh CG, Zubaid M, Thalib L, Rashed W, David T. Racial variation in risk factors and occurrence of acute myocardial infarction: comparison between Arab and South Asian men in Kuwait. Indian heart journal. May-Jun 2002;54(3):266-270.
4. Babusik P, Duris I. Comparison of obesity and its relationship to some metabolic risk factors of atherosclerosis in Arabs and South Asians in Kuwait. Med Princ Pract. 2010;19(4):275-280.
5. Thomas CS, Cherian G, Abraham MT, et al. Clinical and angiographic features in patients under 35 years with a first Q wave acute myocardial infarction. Int J Cardiol. Jun 1 1999;69(3):263-270.