Heart-related ailments could become India's biggest killer as genetic factors contribute to the country having one of the largest number of heart patients in the world, experts said Sunday.

"High cholesterol, mental stress, smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes and emotional turmoil due to break up of families are some of the reasons attributed to growing number of heart patients," said Ganesh K. Mani, chairman of the Delhi Heart and Lung Institute in New Delhi.

"In a recent study carried out in 16 large countries, India has bagged the dubious distinction of having the most number of heart patients," said K.K. Sethi, the institute's vice chairman.

"Due to genetic factors, the South Asian countries of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have four fold cases of heart diseases as compared to the rest of the world, as all the four countries share the same genes," said Sethi.

A team of doctors is here to tie up with state government's premier hospital Indira Gandhi Medical College Hospital (IGMC) to treat patients at the hospital in New Delhi.

"We offer facilities for heart operation and use the latest techniques including electronic mapping for treating 'sudden cardiac death' cases. This facility is available only in a handful of hospitals in the country," claims Mani.

"Several foreigners are also getting themselves treated at the Delhi Heart & Lung institute," he said.

"Opened in July 2003 the institute offers American standard treatment at relatively cheaper costs, and the Himachal Pradesh government has Saturday tied up with the institute to treat employees of the state and reimburse their bills," Mani said.

--Indo-Asian News Service