Heart risk tests are failing Indians, as 80 percent ‘low risk’ patients in India suffer heart attacks
A study of 5,000 Indian heart patients reveals that 80 percent classified as low to moderate risk suffered heart attacks, highlighting flaws in Western risk calculators and urging Indians to prioritise lifestyle changes beyond routine diagnostic scores.
Hyderabad: The next time you get a green signal from your physician after undergoing diagnostic tests that suggest your heart condition is ‘clean as a whistle’, think twice.
That clean bill of health is not a licence to lead a sedentary lifestyle, eat whatever you want or an insurance policy against heart attacks. On the contrary, it could be a dangerous blind spot which is masking a ticking time bomb.
A groundbreaking study of nearly 5,000 heart attack patients from India has literally set the ‘cat among the pigeons’. The Delhi-based study, which is highly relevant to all Indians, reveals that 80 percent of Indians who suffered a heart attack were earlier classified as ‘low to moderate risk’ by standard cardiovascular risk calculators widely used by hospitals.
In a clear case of ‘Western bias’ in a patient’s lab report, the tools (calculators) such as the ASCVD (Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease) score, which doctors use to predict the risk of heart attacks among Indians, have been developed in the United States and other European countries.
It turns out, according to the study, Indians suffer heart attacks 10 years earlier than Westerners, often despite having ‘normal’ BMI and cholesterol levels.
Commenting on the study, which was carried out by GB Pant Hospital, New Delhi, noted public health commentator from Hyderabad Dr Sudhir Kumar urged the general public not to get carried away by such superficial scores, as they can often be dangerous.
“If you are relying on such cardiovascular scores to feel safe, you need to read the study. Most risk calculators were built using Western data. Indian hearts behave differently, as we develop heart diseases 10 years earlier,” says Dr Sudhir. “The Western scores ignore lipoprotein, a huge genetic risk factor that is present in 1 in Indians, and psychological stress, which is another massive unmeasured driver in our Indian cities,” he recently pointed out on X.
According to the study, Indians tend to suffer severe heart attacks. “All the risk scores that we have are Western risk scores, which are made up of 6 or 7 risk factors. We believed that if we apply these risk scores to the Indian population to assess the chances of a heart attack in 10 years, these risk scores should not be validated for us. When we used Western risk scores in Indian heart attack patients, we saw that 80 percent of the people were classified as low risk and moderate risk,” the study said.
Important points:
- A clean heart report is not an insurance policy against heart attacks
- True prevention does not mean a green signal in a lab report
- Individuals must maintain diet, exercise and stress management
- 80 percent of people, who were classified low risk by Western scores, had heart attacks
- Indians experiencing heart attacks 10 years earlier than the West
- Majority of heart risk scores in India are made for Westerners
