Abstract:
Understanding the pathophysiological role of risk factors in the development of coronary
artery disease (CAD) is important. Dyslipidemia, hypertension, family history of CAD and
diabetes are identified as independent risk factors for the disease. It is reported that more
than 50% of patients with CAD lack any of the conventional risk factors whereas some
reported these risk factors play a significant role in CAD. The present study attempted to
determine the prevalence of dyslipidemia, hypertension, family history of CAD and diabetes
among the patients (n=102) who were awaiting Coronary Artery Bypass Graft at the
Cardiothoracic unit of Sri Jayewardenepura General Hospital. Among these patients 67
were males (age 56 9.6yr) and 35 (age 58 7.7yr) were females. Data on dyslipidemia,
hypertension, family history of CAD and diabetes were gathered using an interviewer
administrated questionnaire. The descriptive statistics were analysed (SPSS 16.0 version).
Dyslipidemia was the most prevalent (87.3%) risk factor followed by hypertension (70.6 %),
family history of CAD (53.9%) and diabetes (53.9%) in the study sample. A majority of the
individuals presented three (33%) or two risk factors (32%) while 22.5% from the total
sample presented all four risk factors. When considering the different combinations of risk
factors hypertension, dyslipidemia, family history of CAD was the most common
combination in the group with 03 risk factors. A majority of males and all of the rural females
were dyslipidemic. In the total sample the percentage distribution of diabetes was
significantly (p=0.005) high among urban residents. However, females residing in urban
areas in addition to having diabetes (p=0.01) were hypertensive (p=0.02). The data indicate
that a majority of the patients with CAD had at least two of above risk factors and
dyslipidemia was the major risk factor among 88% of the study population irrespective of
residency.
Keywords : Coronary artery disease, risk factor, diabetes, dyslipidaemia, urban
Acknowledgement: National Science Foundation grant NSF/RG/2011/HS/18.
