Corrected thrombolysis in myocardial infarction frame counts in diabetic patients with angiographically normal

Sedat Turkoglu1, Murat Ozdemir, Gulten Tacoy

  • 1Department of Cardiology, Gazi University School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey. turkoglusedat@gmail.com

Saudi Medical Journal
|August 12, 2008
PubMed

Insights

Corrected thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) frame count (CTFC) did not differ between diabetic and non-diabetic patients with normal coronary arteries. This suggests CTFC may be inadequate for detecting microvascular dysfunction in diabetic individuals with normal coronary angiograms.

Area of Science:

  • Cardiology
  • Diabetology
  • Vascular Medicine

Background:

  • Diabetes mellitus is associated with microvascular dysfunction.
  • Assessing microvascular function in diabetic patients with normal coronary arteries is clinically important.
  • Corrected thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) frame count (CTFC) is a method to evaluate coronary microvascular function.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate CTFC in patients with angiographically normal coronary arteries and diabetes mellitus.
  • To determine if diabetes impacts microvascular function as measured by CTFC in this patient group.

Main Methods:

  • A retrospective study of patients undergoing coronary angiography between 2000 and 2005.
  • CTFC was calculated for the left anterior descending, left circumflex, and right coronary arteries.
  • Comparison of CTFC between 118 diabetic and 122 non-diabetic patients with normal coronary angiograms.

Main Results:

  • Mean CTFC values for LAD, Cx, and RCA were similar between diabetic and non-diabetic groups (p>0.05 for all).
  • Stepwise multivariate linear regression identified body surface area as significantly correlated with CTFC in all three coronary arteries.
  • No significant difference in microvascular function, as assessed by CTFC, was observed between the groups.

Conclusions:

  • CTFC is similar in diabetic and non-diabetic patients with angiographically normal coronary arteries.
  • The findings suggest CTFC may be insufficient for predicting microvascular disease in diabetic patients with normal coronary angiograms.
  • Further research may be needed to identify more sensitive markers of microvascular dysfunction in this population.
Abstract