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(Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. 2003;23:703.)
© 2003 American Heart Association, Inc.

Letters to the Editor

IgG Is Higher in South Asians Than Europeans: Does Infection Contribute to Ethnic Variation In Cardiovascular Disease?

C.M. Fischbacher; R. Bhopal; C.C. Blackwell; R. Ingram; N.C. Unwin; M. White; K.G.M.M. Alberti

Section of Public Health Sciences (C.M.F., R.B.) and Medical Microbiology (C.C.B., R.I.), University of Edinburgh; Departments of Epidemiology and Public Health (R.B., N.C.U., M.W.) and Diabetes (N.C.U., K.G.M.M.A.), The Medical School, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle; Immunology and Microbiology (C.C.B.), University of Newcastle, Royal Newcastle Hospital, Newcastle, Australia

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

To the Editor:

Coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality is 40% higher in UK residents born in the Indian subcontinent than in the general UK population, a difference not explained by traditional cardiovascular risk factors. The burden of chronic infections has been associated with increased risk of CHD,¹ and South Asians are likely to have a different lifetime exposure to infection than those of European origin. Serum gamma globulin (IgG) is a nonspecific measure of immune activation. Elevated levels have been associated with increased risk of myocardial infarction.²

We measured total IgG using quantitative enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA)³ in stored sera from 302 European and 302 South Asian participants in the Newcastle Heart Project, a stratified population sample of men and women 25 to 74 years old in Newcastle on Tyne, UK.⁴ The study was approved by the local ethics committee, and participants gave written informed consent. In a previous study, we measured C-reactive protein (CRP) using a highly sensitive method in a subsample of 100 South Asian participants.⁵ Of those included in the present study, 35 also had measurements available for CRP. IgG was log transformed, and results are presented as geometric means.

The mean age (SD) of Europeans was 54.5 years (13.1) and of South Asians 50.1 (12.1). Geometric mean IgG (95% confidence interval [CI]) was 7.4 (6.7, 8.2) g/L among Europeans and 13.5 (12.1, 15.2) g/L among all South Asians: 13.9 (11.4, 17.0) among Indians, 14.0 (11.8, 16.5) among Pakistanis, and 11.9 (9.2, 15.3) among Bangladeshis. Although . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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