Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a powerful and independent risk factor for coronary artery disease (CAD). Coronary heart disease is the most frequent cause of death among diabetics. Autopsy studies have shown that diabetics have a greater number of coronary vessels involved and more diffuse distribution of atherosclerotic lesions. Our aim was to compare angiographically-determined coronary artery disease (CAD) in diabetic patients with controls in this study. Two hundred and fifty-five patients coming to coronary angiography were reviewed. Sixty-eight diabetic and 187 control patients were matched for sex, age and risk factors for CAD. Comparisons between the diabetic and nondiabetic groups were performed using the student t test. The number of diabetic patients with multi-vessel coronary artery disease (39/68, 57.3%) was larger than nondiabetic patients (52/187, 27.8%). The number of vessels with significant (>=75% stenosis) distal and diffuse diseases was greater in the diabetic group than in the nondiabetic group (p<0.05) We concluded that diabetic patients have more advanced atherosclerotic lesions in coronary arteries than nondiabetics
Keywords: Coronary angiography, coronary artery disease, diabetes mellitus