Objectives: To investigate the adverse effect of type 2 diabetes on coronary artery anatomy.
Patients and methods: The coronary angiograms of 1564 consecutive patients were analyzed. The coronary lesions of patients with and without type 2 diabetes were compared.
Results: Seventy-four diabetic and 824 nondiabetic patients were found to have coronary artery disease. Diabetic patients had more multivessel (48.7% versus 34.7%, P<0.01), multilesion (64.9% versus 46.1%, P<0.05), extensive (51.4% versus 7.8%, P<0.01) and small vessel disease (95.2% versus 39.8%, P<0.01) than nondiabetic patients.
Conclusions: Type 2 diabetes is a significant risk factor for coronary artery disease. These findings may provide useful information for the future development of therapeutic strategies.
Keywords: Coronary angiogram; Coronary artery disease; Diabetes mellitus.