Afro-Caribbean Heart Failure in the United Kingdom

Most large heart failure studies in the United Kingdom population fail to include specific data on AfroCaribbean patients because ethnic minority groups form a relatively small proportion nationwide. However, >1 million people of Afro-Caribbean ethnicity live in the Greater London area (2011 census data) forming a significant proportion of the city’s population (13.3%). There are few studies focusing on ethnic differences in heart failure in UK populations. Previous studies in black subjects suggest that heart failure is less likely to be caused by coronary artery disease and frequently caused by hypertensive heart disease. The limited reports in the UK Afro-Caribbean population suggest that this cohort often present in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction that may be related to hypertensive cardiomyopathy.