Residual Angina After Elective Percutaneous Coronary Intervention in Patients With Diabetes Mellitus

Previous studies suggest that among patients with stable coronary artery disease, patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) have less angina and more silent ischemia when compared with those without DM. However, the burden of angina in diabetic versus nondiabetic patients after elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has not been recently examined.

In a 10-site US PCI registry, we assessed angina before and at 1, 6, and 12 months after elective PCI with the Seattle Angina Questionnaire angina frequency score (range, 0-100, higher=better). We also examined the rates of antianginal medication prescriptions at discharge. A multivariable, repeated-measures Poisson model was used to examine the independent association of DM with angina over the year after treatment. Among 1080 elective PCI patients (mean age, 65 years; 74.7% men), 34.0% had DM. At baseline and at each follow-up, patients with DM had similar angina prevalence and severity as those without DM. Patients with DM were more commonly prescribed calcium channel blockers and long-acting nitrates at discharge (DM versus not: 27.9% versus 20.9% [P=0.01] and 32.8% versus 25.5% [P=0.01], respectively), whereas β-blockers and ranolazine were prescribed at similar rates. In the multivariable, repeated-measures model, the risk of angina was similar over the year after PCI in patients with versus without DM (relative risk, 1.04; range, 0.80-1.36).

Patients with stable coronary artery disease and DM exhibit a burden of angina that is at least as high as those without DM despite more antianginal prescriptions at discharge. These findings contradict the conventional teachings that patients with DM experience less angina because of silent ischemia.