Coronary artery disease and carotid artery intima-media thickness in Japanese type 2 diabetic patients

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between carotid atherosclerosis, measured as intima-media thickness (IMT), and cardiovascular morbidity in type 2 diabetic patients. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We investigated the relationship between IMT and coronary artery disease (CAD) in 40 type 2 diabetic patients and 40 control subjects. Diabetic patients with CAD determined by coronary angiography were consecutively recruited, whereas the control subjects were recruited from among diabetic outpatients without CAD at the same institution. IMT was measured in both carotid arteries using B-mode ultrasonography. RESULTS: Carotid IMT was significantly greater in the diabetic patients than in the control subjects (1.27 +/- 0.07 vs. 1.03 +/- 0.04 mm, P < 0.05). IMT was associated with CAD by logistic regression analysis using all independent variables (P = 0.062). When the 40 patients with CAD were divided into a group of 20 patients with coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and another 20 patients without CABG, the IMT was significantly greater in the CABG group than in the non-CABG group (1.47 +/- 0.11 vs. 1.07 +/- 0.07 mm, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that the presence of carotid atherosclerosis implies a high probability of coronary involvement in Japanese nonobese subjects with type 2 diabetes.