Coronary heart disease seen increasingly among Indo-Guyanese

Dr. Rajiv Jauhar (right) stands with his team from the Long Island Jewish Hospital at Cara Lodge on Friday.

Coronary heart disease is rapidly growing among Indo-Guyanese, a medical team from the Long Island Jewish Hospital in New York said on Friday during a discussion about heart disease among people of Indian descent.

The team made presentations at Cara Lodge in Quamina Street, where the gathering included Health Minister Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, Youth, Culture and Sport Minister Frank Anthony and other prominent local doctors.

Heart Specialist Dr. Rajiv Jauhar, a member of the team, said that most operations and treatments administered on Indian patients are in compliance with data taken from Caucasian patients. He said it was an erroneous practice, since the biological make-up of persons of Indian descent differs, especially in diameters of valves in the heart.

Jauhar further indicated that there has been an increase in the number of younger patients in heart clinics because of a