LU Shigui, aged 52, had never worried about heart trouble until his doctor showed him X-rays of his heart last weekend. He saw that the coronary artery had become extremely narrow and little blood was flowing through to his heart.

　　Although Lu has suffered from diabetes for several years, he never took it seriously until coronary heart disease suddenly hit him.

　　Lu is one of 40 million coronary heart disease victims in China and the disease today is threatening an increasing number of people.

　　"The faster pace of life, less exercising and unhealthy dining habits have triggered this killer disease," said Shen Weifeng, vice-president of Ruijin Hospital and an expert in this medical area.

　　"Cardiovascular diseases, especially coronary heart disease have increasing rapidly among middle-aged and senior citizens."

　　The coronary artery is the only blood vessel to the heart, and if it becomes too narrow, the heart will get diseased due to a shortage of blood. The narrowing process takes a long time - sometimes several decades - but it usually starts when the victim is still young.

　　In many cases, the victims of coronary artery disease don't have any serious symptoms during the early stages which results in a failure to seek early treatment.

　　According to research on 3,473 middle-aged Chinese in North China, about 233 were found with coronary heart disease among whom 79.4 per cent claimed feeling no symptoms at all.

　　Medical researchers know coronary heart disease has an obvious family history among patients.

　　Over-weight people, those with high fat and cholesterol in their blood or high blood pressure are more at risk of the disease. Men are more prone to the disease than women. Smoking has also been proved to be linked to heart disease.

　　Expensive treatment

　　An advanced new technology - the CYPHER Sirolimus-eluting Stent - has given hope for heart disease patients.

　　This medical device is a small, spring-like metal stent that is coated with the drug sirolimus and also includes a polymer coating that controls the timed release of the drug inside the vessel.

　　When the stent is introduced to the diseased heart artery through the artery in the thigh it is expanded and the narrowed blood vessels in the heart are widened to allow normal blood flow.

　　"The surgery of introducing the medical device into the artery has greatly lowered the death rate due to myocardial infarction from 30 per cent to 5 per cent," said Professor Wei Meng at Shanghai No. 6 People's Hospital.

　　Experts said that the keyhole surgery involved was much safer and improved patients' quality of life.

　　However, the expensive cost of the operation - 35,000 yuan (US,200) to 55,000 yuan (US,634) - stopped many patients from seeking the most-advanced therapy although it was much cheaper in China than in Western countries.

　　"As most of my patients are retirees over 60 years old, the device seems too expensive to afford and medical insurance just covers a small part of the cost," said Shen.