Demographic, Clinical and Angiographic Profile of Coronary Artery Disease in Kurdistan Region of Iraq

Introduction: The characters of coronary artery disease with its risk factors and coronary angiograms studied elsewhere revealed differences in different populations. We, here, assess the regional characters of coronary artery disease with its major risk factors and coronary angiographic profile in Duhok, Kurdistan region of Iraq.

Methods: We conducted this cross sectional study at the Azadi heart center in Duhok, Iraq. A consecutive sampling procedure was used to enroll a total of 300 adult patients with coronary artery disease (145 men and 155 women) who had undergone coronary angiography. Direct interview was used with designed questionnaire to collect demographic, cardiovascular risk factors and angiographic profiles.

Results: The mean patient's age was 55.5 (10.4) years. The most prevalent risk factor was hypertension (55.3%), followed by dyslipidemia (42.7%), type 2 diabetes mellitus (29%), smoking (11%) and ex-smoking (9.3%). Apart from smoking all other risk factors were more frequent in women. Angiographic analysis revealed normal angiograms in (29.3%) versus single vessel disease (23.3%), double vessel disease (14.3%), triple vessel disease (21.3%) and non significant (11.7%). As to the coronary branch involved, the most frequently affected was the left anterior descending artery followed by right coronary artery, left circumflex artery, and left main stem (60.7%, 46.3%, 43.7% and 6% respectively).

Conclusion: This study showed that the coronary artery disease tends to occur earlier in our population. Although cardiovascular risk factors were clustered among women, older men showed more aggressive coronary angiographic lesions.