Introduction

Ischemic heart disease is one of the known global killers and in India the estimated prevalence is approximately 6-9%. As of now it is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in India.

Since the pioneering work of the Framingham study, many prospective and clinical studies have identified a series of independent risk factors for ischemic heart disease among which age, male gender, a positive family history of premature atherosclerotic disease, smoking, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia and low HDL cholesterol are considered as classical risk factors. The interest in improving cardiovascular risk assessment, resulting from a better understanding of the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and identification of new targets for anti-atherosclerotic drug therapy has stimulated the search for novel risk factors.

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Dr Sarath Kumar S

Kottayam Medical College