Comparative Analysis of Coronary Artery Disease in Young Adults: Insights from Southern India and Nigeria

Comparative Analysis of Coronary Artery Disease in Young Adults

Abstract

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is increasingly common in individuals aged ≤40 years, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, due to increasing modifiable risk factors such as diabetes, hypertension, smoking, and dyslipidemia. However, limited data on angiographic patterns exist for this age group from underrepresented regions such as sub-Saharan Africa and southern India. A comparison of two recent studies from Kerala, India, and Nigeria provides perspective. The Indian study retrospectively compared 74 young adults with established CAD and identified 57.14% with SVD, most frequently of the LAD artery; diabetes and male sex were the prevailing risk factors. In Nigeria, 22.3% of patients younger than 40 years had coronary artery disease and the most frequent abnormality was SVD. Vessel involvement was significantly associated with age (p = 0.049). These findings underscore the presence of premature CAD in both populations, with the need for region-specific early preventive and screening measures to reduce premature CAD burden.