Ethnic differences in the management of coronary heart disease patients : lessons to be learned in Indo-Asians

Objectives: To examine the impact of ethnicity on the outcome of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) for myocardial revascularization. Subjects and Methods: We evaluated retrospectively 7,226 Caucasian (CC) and 650 Indo-Asian (IA) patients who underwent isolated first-time CABG surgery over 5 years. The relationship between ethnicity (IA vs. CC) and 30-day mortality, 6-month mortality and complications were analysed. Results: After adjustment for baseline characteristics, IA and CC patients had similar 30-day [IA/CC odds ratio (OR) 1.07; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.84–1.35; p = 0.59] and 6-month mortality risk (IA/CC OR 1.10; 95% CI 0.91–1.34; p = 0.31). However, IA patients were more likely to experience complications following surgery (OR 1.28; 95% CI 1.14–1.45; p < 0.01). Conclusion: Ethnicity does not appear to be a strong risk factor for adverse outcomes following CABG surgery in the IA patients. However, future studies are needed to elucidate the specific reasons for higher complication rates in IA patients and to devise strategies to reduce complications following the operation for these patients.