Racial differences in coronary artery lesions: a comparison of coronary artery lesions between mainland Chinese and Australian patients.

Aims: The purpose of this study was to compare coronary lesions in mainland Chinese and Australians using coronary angiography (CAG).

Methods And Results: 6251 suspected coronary heart disease (CHD) patients (3021 Chinese patients from Nanjing and 3230 Australian patients from Sydney) who underwent a CAG between January 1, 2001, and December 31, 2003, were studied. Of these, 69.4% Chinese and 75.5% Australians were diagnosed with CHD. The incidences of both left main coronary artery (LM) and left anterior descending branch (LAD) lesions in Australians were higher than that for Chinese of the same gender. In the same age range, above 40, Gensini scores of Australians were significantly higher than those of Chinese.

Conclusion: In both Chinese and Australians, men had more severe coronary lesions than women. Comparison among different age ranges in the 2 ethnic groups shows that Australians typically have artery lesions more than 10 years earlier than mainland Chinese.