Long-term follow-up of angioplasty in diabetes mellitus

We compared 55 treated diabetic and 193 non-diabetic patients to evaluate the angiographic outcome of balloon angioplasty. We found an increase in the rate of appearance of new narrowings in diabetic patients (p < .004). Diabetes mellitus and the performance of angioplasty in the artery had an additive risk for the development of new narrowings. We conclude that diabetic patients have a high risk for development of new narrowings in the angioplasty artery. This finding may explain the poor outcome of diabetics who undergo multivessel angioplasty.