(RxWiki News) Race may play a role in determining which patients are more likely to need repeated procedures to widen narrowed arteries caused by coronary artery disease.
South Asian patients suffering from coronary artery disease are nearly three times more likely to be readmitted to a hospital for additional angioplasty treatment as compared to white patients. They also were more likely to need urgent emergency treatment.
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Dr. Chetan Varma, lead author from the department of cardiology at City Hospital in the United Kingdom, said that while South Asian patients were significantly more likely to need additional artery-opening procedures than their white counterparts, there were no long-term differences in all-cause mortality rates among either group.
Researchers followed 1,158 patients, mostly men, who received angioplasty at a UK hospital over a 5-year period. Of those patients, 293 were South Asian and the remainder were white Europeans.
The patients studied were consecutive patients who received angioplasty at the same hospital between April 2002 and December 2004. They were followed for between 47 months and 65 months. The South Asian patients were of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan origin. High-risk cases were excluded. About 12 percent of patients died during follow up.
They found that while South Asian patients tended to be younger at 62-years-old versus 66, they were more than twice as likely to have diabetes, but were less likely to be smokers. The South Asian patients also were three times more likely to be socially deprived, which was linked to a 5 percent increased risk of death for any reason.
Investigators discovered that 111 patients needed repeat angioplasty or coronary artery bypass grafting. South Asians patients were significantly more likely to be admitted for repeat angioplasty at 15.7 percent as compared to 5.5 percent of white patients. In addition, 2.7 percent of South Asians were admitted for coronary artery bypass grafting versus 1 percent from the other group.
The study was recently published in the December issue of the International Journal of Clinical Practice.
