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(Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. 2005;25:2240.)
© 2005 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorials

Ethnic Differences in Arterial Responses, Inflammation, and Metabolic Profiles

Possible Insights into Ethnic Differences in Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke

Gregory Y.H. Lip; Christopher J. Boos

From the Haemostasis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology Unit, University Department of Medicine, City Hospital, Birmingham, UK

Correspondence to Professor Gregory Y.H. Lip, Haemostasis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology Unit, University Department of Medicine, City Hospital, Birmingham, B18 7QH, UK. E-mail g.y.h.lip@bham.ac.uk

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

Despite enormous strides in our understanding of the potential risk factors implicated in cardiovascular disease (CVD), there has been a marked underrepresentation of data among ethnic minority groups in the published studies to date. It is critically important that this imbalance is addressed because it is clear that there are considerable variations in the rate of cardiovascular events and mortality among the differing ethnic groups, at least in the United Kingdom.

See page 2362

Compared with Caucasians, Afro-Caribbeans and people of African descent have an elevated risk (&1.5 to 2.5 times greater) of hypertension and diabetes mellitus, as well as related complications such as stroke, insulin resistance, and end-stage renal failure.^1–6 Yet paradoxically, they have a far lower incidence of coronary artery disease than both south Asians (originating in the Indian subcontinent) and white Caucasians. The reasons for this apparent disparity are not clear but may relate to the clustering of known cardiovascular risk factors among the different ethnic groups. For example, when compared with Caucasians, Afro-Caribbeans are noted (in some studies) to have an increased incidence of obesity as well as lower levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (yet higher high-density lipoprotein cholesterol) and of smoking rates and abnormal levels of adhesion molecules (which are implicated in coronary atheromatous plaque formation), such as vascular cell adhesion molecule-1, intracellular adhesion molecule-1, and soluble P-selectin.^2,3,5,7–11 In the Table we present an overview of some of the key studies that have compared the known cardiovascular risk factors and CVD among the two groups.

View this table: [in this window] [in a new window]   . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Related Article:

Ethnic Differences in Arterial Responses and Inflammatory Markers in Afro-Caribbean and Caucasian Subjects

Lalit Kalra, Curtis Rambaran, Philip Chowienczyk, David Goss, Ian Hambleton, James Ritter, Ajay Shah, Rainford Wilks, and Terrence Forrester
Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol 2005 25: 2362-2367. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]