Abstract

South Asian Immigrants (SAIs) have high rates of coronary artery disease (CAD) and its risk factors. This is alarming as i) SAIs are the 2nd fastest growing Asian immigrant population in the US; ii) CAD prevalence is 2 times higher than in other immigrant populations; iii) at any risk factor level, SAIs are at a greater risk of CAD; and iv) Type 2 diabetes is a major risk factor and associated co-morbidity in SAIs. Although clinical guidelines for CAD prevention recommend risk management based on Framingham Risk Scores (FRS), available data suggest that FRS underestimate CAD risk in SAIs. This review presents an overview of platelet related research in SAIs, its importance in predicting CAD risk and methods of diagnosis. Further we provide discussion on the importance of platelet function assessment for more appropriate stratification of SAIs based on cardiovascular risk.

Keywords: South Asians, coronary artery disease, platelet function, risk factors, atherosclerosis, South Asian Immigrants, Framingham Risk Scores, metabolic syndrome, nitric oxide, prostaglandin I2, von Willebrandt factor, glycoprotein, fibronectin, laminin, thrombospondin, thromboxane A2, low density lipoprotein, Apolipoprotein A-I, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, rheumatoid arthritis (RA, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD