Diabetes May Not Influence Heart Disease Outcomes

Study finds patients treated with stents or coronary artery bypass have similar outcomes

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 21 (HealthDay News) -- Diabetes mellitus does not affect outcomes in patients with unprotected left main coronary artery stenosis treated with drug-eluting stents or coronary artery bypass, according to a study in the October issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Interventions.

Won-Jang Kim, M.D., and colleagues from the University of Ulsan College of Medicine in Seoul, South Korea, analyzed the results of a clinical trial involving 1,474 patients with unprotected left main coronary artery stenosis, who had been assigned to a drug-eluting stent or coronary artery bypass grafting, to determine whether diabetes mellitus (present in 507 patients) influenced long-term clinical outcomes.

After adjusting for possible confounders, the researchers found that the two groups had a similar risk of death or the combined outcome of death, Q-wave myocardial infarction, or stroke at three years. The target vessel revascularization rate was significantly higher in patients who received drug-eluting stents (hazard ratio, 4.31). The trends were the same for diabetic and non-diabetic patients, and diabetes status was not found to affect outcomes.

"The prognostic impact of diabetes on long-term treatment with drug-eluting stents or coronary artery bypass grafting for patients with unprotected left main coronary artery stenosis disease was minimal," Kim and colleagues conclude.

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