Cardiovascular disease and diabetes are reaching epidemic proportions in the United States and in developing countries.  India, in particular, has shown marked increases in the rates of these two diseases with major public health impact. The epidemiology and mechanism underlying these trends are incompletely understood.   It is known that CAD risk has a strong genetic component .  Research work at Duke University, NC, USA in Caucasian population has already suggested that novel mechanisms of diabetes and cardiovascular disease risk and have also identified novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers.  Through this proposal, we will expand Duke’s previous work in the clinical and molecular epidemiology of type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Indian populations.  This work will help us to better define the epidemiology of diabetes and CVD in Indian populations and advance our understanding of molecular mechanisms related to the dramatic increase in diabetes and CVD risk in transitioning Indian populations,

The primary goals of this component of the study proposal are :

1)      To identify novel biomarkers of type II diabetes and coronary artery disease in an Indian population referred for cardiac catheterization at Medanta Hospital.  Metabolomic profiling and gene expression assays on 400 participants referred for cardiac catheterization in 2x2 factorial design of type II diabetes and coronary artery disease (+DM/+CAD vs. +DM/-CAD vs. –DM/+CAD vs. –DM/-CAD).

2)      To conduct a small-scale pilot “proof-of-principle” effort of clinical and electrocardiographic data and biological sample collection in rural Delhi. Clinical, biochemical and ECG evaluation of 300 participants in Medanta cardiovascular disease outreach camp.

In this study, we will analyse the blood samples from the study population for genetic and metabolomic profiling.