"Few patients used an ambulance to reach the hospital; most used private or public transport," they wrote.
The patients they studied were less likely to get surgery to clear clogged arteries than people in other countries because about three-quarters of patients in India pay directly for their own treatments.
Indian heart patients were just as likely as patients elsewhere to get recommended heart drugs such as blood thinners, clot busters and cholesterol-lowering drugs.
"This shows awareness of evidence-based treatments by Indian physicians, and the wide availability and the relatively low cost of generic drugs in India," the researchers wrote.
"The mortality rate was highest in poor patients," they added. Death rates were higher almost entirely because of differences in treatments and not risk factors, they added.
