Current perspectives on interventional treatment strategies in diabetic patients with coronary artery disease

Diabetes mellitus has a negative impact on mortality and morbidity following catheter-based coronary procedures as well as coronary artery bypass surgery. Increased restenosis remains the main limitation of catheter-based coronary intervention among diabetes mellitus in addition to accelerated atherosclerosis lesion progression in other untreated coronary sites. Determinants such as excess restenosis, high atherosclerosis burden, lesion complexity, small target vessel size, and accelerated coronary atherosclerosis in remote sites may favor the surgical strategy in most cases of diabetic multivessel disease. The importance of periprocedural adjunctive pharmacotherapy, specifically with the use of antiplatelet and long-term antilipidemic treatment, was shown to improve outcomes in diabetics undergoing percutaneous coronary interventions. The purpose of the review is to examine potential mechanisms causing more restenosis in diabetics, the clinical outcomes of patients with diabetes after coronary interventions including stenting, the treatment alternatives of diabetic patients with diffuse coronary artery disease, including coronary bypass surgery, and current understanding of the benefit of adjunctive pharmacology on clinical outcomes after coronary interventions among diabetics.