SL has 1.5 m adults with coronary artery disease

Nadira GUNATILLEKE

Dr Sandeep Shrivastava

Sri Lanka has about 1.5 million adults with coronary artery disease, Nawaloka Hospital Resident Senior Consultant and Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Dr Sandeep Shrivastava told the Daily News.

Dr Shrivastava said that men above 35 and post menopause women have the same incidence of coronary artery disease.

Pre-menopause women are slightly protected. If a person has multiple risk factors, the chance of getting coronary artery disease is high. Even when a person does not have any risk factors, he or she still has a small chance of getting the disease. If a person has more than five risk factors, he or she has a 30 percent chance of getting coronary artery disease. "Fifty percent of persons who die from coronary artery disease do not have symptoms.

The first symptom is death. If you call this an epidemic, it is the worst epidemic in the world and the leading cause of death in the 21st century. All men above 35 and women above 40 should get a Comprehensive Cardiac Checkup (CCC) regularly," Dr Shrivastava said.