Indian Journal of Science and Technology

Abstract

Over the last decade, cardiovascular disease especially coronary heart disease has become the largest cause of death worldwide. This study was taken to determine the effects of parental consanguinity on the coronary artery disease (CAD) risk in the progeny. Over a period of one year from April 2010 to March 2011, 1000 patients of CAD who underwent cardiac catheterization were included in the study. Among these patients the presence of parental consanguinity and family history of CAD was noted and their impact on CAD risk was determined, controlling for diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, hypertension and smoking. Parental consanguinity was present in 1.5 % (15 patients) of the total CAD patients studied. 1% (10 patients) had both parental consanguinity and family history of CAD. While consanguinity did not promote risk of CAD, but along with family history of CAD it did affect age of disease diagnosis. When both consanguinity and family history of CAD were considered as risk factors for CAD, the mean age of at CAD diagnosis was 51.2 years, compared to 62.2 years for the no-risk factor patient category. Parental consanguinity and family history of CAD is an additional risk factor and lowers the age of diagnosis for CAD. Given the extremely high prevalence of premature CAD in South Asian population, an investigation of recessive genes as predisposing factors for CAD would appear to be warranted.
Keywords: Coronary heart disease, Consanguinity. Keywords: Coronary heart disease, Consanguinity.