Coronary artery disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in diabetic patients. Coronary revascularization, using percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and/or coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), haved lower prognosis in terms of repeated interventions and mortality in diabetic compared with the non-diabetic population. In the late 80s, the BARI trial [1988-1991] demonstrated that diabetic patients with three-vessel disease or two-vessel disease involving the proximal left anterior descending artery had greater survival with CABG compared with PCI (without stenting) (76.4% versus 55.7%, p=0.0011) even though at 7-years there was no difference in the non-diabetic population.

Abstract