Sex differences in the prognostic importance of diabetes in patients with ischemic heart disease undergoing coronary angiography.
OBJECTIVE
Women with ischemic heart disease have poorer outcomes than men and are suggested to have greater risk associated with diabetes. We evaluated the prognosis associated with diabetes, in analyses stratified by sex, to determine whether similar differences are seen in a large unselected cohort of patients.


METHODS
Using the Alberta Provincial Project for Outcomes Assessment in Coronary Heart Disease (APPROACH), a clinical data collection and follow-up initiative capturing all patients undergoing cardiac catheterization in Alberta, Canada, the relative significance of diabetes on long-term survival in 13152 men and 4249 women was evaluated in patients presenting with or without myocardial infarction and according to first treatment received.


RESULTS
The 1-year mortality rates were 4.7% and 6.8% in men and women (P < 0.001), 4.1% and 7.4% in nondiabetic and diabetic men (P < 0.001), and 5.8% and 9.6% in nondiabetic and diabetic women, respectively (P < 0.001). The risk-adjusted Cox proportional hazard ratios associated with diabetes in myocardial infarction were 1.03 in men and 1.20 in women. The diabetes hazard ratios for percutaneous coronary intervention were 1.28 in men and 1.40 in women, 1.23 in men and 1.32 in women for bypass surgery, and 1.26 in men and 1.31 in women for medical therapy (P = NS for all diabetes hazard ratio comparisons between men and women).


CONCLUSIONS
Hazard ratios quantifying the adverse prognosis associated with diabetes in patients undergoing angiography are consistently higher among women than men, but the differences across sexes are not statistically significant. These slight sex differences noted in the APPROACH registry are similar to previously reported findings and may be clinically important.
Graham
Michelle M
MM
Division of Cardiology, University of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. mmgraham@cha.ab.ca
Ghali
William A
WA
Faris
Peter D
PD
Galbraith
P Diane
PD
Norris
Colleen M
CM
Knudtson
Merril L
ML
D000368:Aged; D000800:Angioplasty, Balloon / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017023:Coronary Angiography; D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000401:mortality* / Q000601:surgery; D011379:Prognosis; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D016019:Survival Analysis