title: Coronary Artery Disease in Patients Aged 35 or less - A Different Beast?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the extent and severity of coronary artery disease (CAD) in 200 consecutive patients aged 35 years or less undergoing diagnostic coronary angiography.
  
  
  METHODS
  Findings in these 200 patients (≤ 35 years of age) were analyzed to find the extent and severity of CAD. The mean age was 31.69 (±3.76) years. Majority were males (94%) and from the Arab ethnicity (70.5%).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Smoking (71%) and history of premature CAD (27%) were the most frequent risk factors (RF). History of previous ST elevation myocardial infarction (MI) was present in 68%. Anterior wall MI was the most frequent location (63.3%). The majority (54.3%) had moderate or large size MI. Ejection fraction (EF) less than 50% was noted in 30.3%. Left main or triple vessel CAD was seen in 15%. One- and two-vessel CAD was seen in 32.5% and 19% patients, respectively. Coronary angiogram was completely normal in 23.5%. The majority (54.5%) were treated conservatively and the rest (45.5%) needed percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or coronary artery bypass graft (CABG). The mean number of stents used was 1.3 ± 0.67 and the mean length of stents used was 20.3 ± 12.6 mm.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The extent and severity of CAD was very significant in this subgroup of very young (≤35 years) Asian patients. Smoking was the main risk factor and half of the patients needed either PCI or CABG.
authors: Department of Cardiology, Chest Diseases Hospital, Ministry of Health, Kuwait.
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Christus
authors: A M
authors: AM
authors: Shukkur
authors: I
authors: I
authors: Rashdan
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Koshy
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Alanbaei
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Zubaid
authors: N
authors: N
authors: Hayat
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Alsayegh