Background: The Bypass Angioplasty Revascularization Investigation trial demonstrated that symptomatic diabetics with multivessel coronary artery disease had a survival advantage with initial coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) versus percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). No published study has examined different treatments and outcome in asymptomatic diabetics.
Methods and results: This study group consisted of 826 asymptomatic diabetics (age 62+/-12 years; 76% men) without known coronary artery disease who had abnormal myocardial perfusion during stress single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). SPECT images were classified as low-, intermediate-, and high-risk. Early revascularization (CABG or PCI < or =4 months after SPECT) was performed in 76 patients. Survival (follow-up, 5.3+/-3.3 years) was compared in patients treated with CABG, PCI, or medical therapy. Revascularization (CABG or PCI) was performed in 54 of 261 patients with high-risk scans and was independently associated with improved survival (chi2=4.55; P=0.03 after multivariate adjustment). Subset analysis demonstrated that the survival advantage was confined to patients treated with CABG (n=39), with a 5-year survival CABG at 85%, PCI at 72%, and medical therapy at 67% (P=0.02 for 3 groups). Although CABG was associated with better survival, mortality remained high (3% per year). There was no survival advantage by treatment for patients with less-severe SPECT abnormalities.
Conclusions: These nonrandomized data suggest that CABG improves survival in asymptomatic diabetic patients with high-risk SPECT, although revascularization was performed infrequently in these patients. These results parallel those of the Bypass Angioplasty Revascularization Investigation trial in symptomatic diabetic patients.