Endothelial function in patients with and without diabetes mellitus with different degrees of coronary artery stenosis.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate endothelial function using flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) of the brachial artery in patients with and without diabetes mellitus (DM) with different degrees of coronary artery stenosis.


METHODS
We investigated 293 patients, 69 (23.6%) of whom had DM. FMD and coronary arteriography were performed.


RESULTS
Patients with DM had a significantly lower FMD (mean +/- SD, 3.7 +/- 3.8%) compared with patients without DM (mean +/- SD, 5.2 +/- 5.3%) (p < 0.05). When the results were broken down by the severity of coronary artery disease (CAD) (no significant coronary artery stenosis, 1-vessel disease, 2-vessel disease, and 3-vessel disease) the only statistically significant difference between diabetics and nondiabetics was found in patients without significant coronary stenosis (mean FMD +/- SD: 5.2 +/- 4.4% in diabetics, 7.6 +/- 5.4% in nondiabetics [p < 0.05]).


CONCLUSIONS
In CAD patients, the presence of DM was associated with endothelial dysfunction. The difference in the FMD was clearly expressed between patients with and without DM in the subgroup without significant coronary stenosis, and was no longer present with advanced coronary atherosclerosis.
Simova
Iana I
II
Clinic of Cardiology, University Hospital Alexandrovska, Sofia, Bulgaria.
Denchev
Stefan V
SV
Dimitrov
Simeon I
SI
Ivanova
Raia
R
D000368:Aged; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D001916:Brachial Artery / Q000503:physiopathology*; D023921:Coronary Stenosis / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index