Abstract
Diabetes mellitus is a major risk factor for the development of ischemic heart disease. Its prevalence in diabetic patients is reported to range broadly between 10-55 %.
It is necessary to actively search for the presence of myocardial ischemia in patients with diabetes, since waiting for the development of symptoms is associated with the finding of already advanced coronary atherosclerosis in these patients, with less satisfactory outcomes of coronary interventions and surgery. Results of the BARDOT study seem to indicate that the appropriate tool for stratification of the risk of cardiac events in diabetics could be stress myocardial scintigraphy.
This test is successful in detecting the presence of myocardial ischemia, assessing its size and location and identifying whether reversible ischemia is involved. Such data is very important with regard to choosing the right treatment strategy.
We often find advanced coronary atherosclerosis in diabetic patients for which surgical treatment is more appropriate. Nonetheless in the era of modern stents also the patients with diabetes can be treated with intervention.
All the influenceable risk factors for ischemic heart disease should be consistently treated by intervention in each diabetic patient, who should be given optimum pharmacotherapy. This involves medication with a proven impact on the patient prognosis, influencing the progression of coronary atherosclerosis and mitigation of myocardial ischemia..