Disease Burden of Coronary Artery Atherosclerosis - An Autopsy Study from Tertiary Health Centre in North India

The incidence of coronary artery disease has been markedly increased in India. The present study was designed to assess the atherosclerotic lesions of coronary artery with wide age range in the semi-urban and urban population at tertiary health centre in north India. The study comprises heart specimens of 200 autopsy cases. The cases were divided into different groups according to age (0-10yrs, n=4), (>10-20yrs, n= 6), (>20-30yrs, n= 43), (>30-40yrs, n=40), (>40-50yrs, n= 39), (>50-60yrs, n= 43), (>60-70yrs, n= 20), (>70yrs, n= 5). There were 160 (mean age 45.59 years ±15.48) males and 40 (mean age 32.02 years ±13.42) females. The coronary vessels were examined grossly as well as microscopically for the presence of atherosclerosis in every case. Atherosclerotic lesions were categorized into VIII types. On data analysis frequency of advanced atherosclerotic lesions was seen increasing in early age group. Atheromatous change was noted from 3^rd decade of life with maximum percentage seen in 5^th decade, indicating that age for presentation of atherosclerosis is decreasing. Overall frequency of atherosclerosis was found to be 34.0%. And also, it was noted that atherosclerosis was less common in females younger than 40 years of age while no statistically significant difference was observed between males and females after 40 years of age.

It was concluded that an autopsy based study to assess frequency of atherosclerosis is cost effective procedure and is helpful tool to direct and transform the evolution of the coronary artery disease.