Profile of coronary arterial disease in diabetic patients undergoing coronary arterial bypass grafting

Diabetics are believed to have more extensive and diffuse lesions of the coronary arteries in presence of coronary arterial disease. We studied prospectively 52 diabetics with coronary arterial disease who underwent coronary arterial bypass grafting and evaluated their pre-operative symptomatology, angiographic appearance of coronary arteries, coronary arterial dimensions as assessed at surgery, and the post-operative complications. These were compared to 52 age and sex matched non-diabetic controls undergoing surgery during the same period. There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of pre-operative symptomatology or frequency of myocardial infarction in the two groups. Left ventricular angiographic findings were also comparable, as was the observation on the extent and severity of coronary arterial disease as assessed by angiography and at surgery. Hence, we recommend coronary arterial bypass grafting to diabetics with the same criteria as are applied to non-diabetics, confident that there will be no added morbidity and mortality.