some time ago there was a discussion here re: signs of heart
disease in chimps. A reference that discusses signs of heart
disease in primates, both wild and captive, is:

pp. 218-226 of
"Feeding and Nutrition of Nonhuman Primates"
by Robert S. Harris
1970, Academic Press.

Heart disease has been found in *wild* New World primates. Most of the
research on chimps is on captive (zoo) specimens. Early studies
on chimps (done prior to 1950) found no signs of heart disease
in chimps; later studies found some evidence of heart disease.
A 1958 study, Ratcliffe and Cronin, reports finding arteriosclerosis
in 14.5% of Pongidae family {gibbons, orangs, chimps} primates
in zoos. Other studies are cited that found evidence of heart
disease in chimps, but most such work is done on captive
chimps, not wild ones.

As always, I encourage you to locate the reference cited and read the
material in full for yourself.

Tom Billings