Diabetes as a Risk Factor for Cardiovascular Events in Patients Receiving Permanent Pacemaker – A Propensity Score-Matched Cohort Study

Background: Type 2 diabetes was associated with higher risk for permanent pacemaker (PPM) implantation. We aimed to compare the clinical outcomes between diabetic and non-diabetic patients receiving PPM treatment. Methods: Between January 2003 and December 2017, 1742 patients receiving naïve PPM treatment comprised this retrospective cohort study and were categorized into two groups by the presence or absence of diagnosis of diabetes: diabetic group (n=632, 36.3%) and non-diabetic group (n=1110, 63.7%). The primary outcome was cardiovascular events including heart failure (HF) hospitalization and acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Propensity score matching (PSM) was applied to reduce selection bias between the study groups. Results: During a mean follow-up of 7.8 ± 4.8 years, there were 264 cardiovascular events. A total of 746 patients with a 1:1 paired ratio between diabetic and non-diabetic groups were analyzed in the propensity score-matched series. After PSM, the incidence of cardiovascular events was higher in the diabetic group compared to the non-diabetic group (18.8% vs. 12.3%, P=0.015). Moreover, the incidence of HF hospitalization was higher in the diabetic patients compared to the non-diabetic patients (15.3% vs. 10.2%, P=0.037), whereas the incidence of AMI did not differ between the diabetic and non-diabetic groups (3.5% vs. 2.1%, P=0.268). After adjustments for covariates in multiple Cox regression analysis, diabetes remained as an independent predictor for cardiovascular events [hazard ratio, 1.54; 95% confidence interval, 1.04-2.29; P=0.031].Conclusions:In this cohort study of patients with naïve PPMs implantation, diabetes increased 1.54-fold risk of cardiovascular events in PPM recipients, especially for HF hospitalization.