downtoearth-subscribe

Soft hearted

Indians are more prone to heart diseases according to a study done in the UK, which says that people from the subcontinent have narrow arteries. A cardiology team front Birmingham Hospital examined the angiograms of 27 patients from the subcontinent and compared them to 59 white patients. The average coronary artery diameter for Indians was 24.32 millimetres (mm) as compared to 26.15 mm for the whites. According to Veerandra Rathmore, who led the team, the difference is significant for if there is a dot of a certain size in the coronary artery, an individual with a narrow artery has a greater chance of having a heart attack (New Scientist, Vol 153, No 2069).

Related Content