Diabetic patients are at greater risk for restenosis, recurrent ischemia, and complications following angioplasty than are their nondiabetic counterparts. This is a retrospective study identifying diabetic patients who were treated with abciximab and intracoronary stenting during the period of January 1997 to December 1999. Abciximab was administered to 268 of 707 diabetic patients who received intracoronary stents from 1997 to 1999. The abciximab group contained a higher number of patients with severe ventricular dysfunction and high-grade lesions. Primary endpoints of all-cause mortality, same-vessel revascularization, CABG, TVR, and postprocedural myocardial infarction were similar for both groups. The abciximab group had reduced rates of readmission for cardiac reasons during all follow-up periods. The trends toward improvement of mortality, surgical or percutaneous revascularization, and cardiac readmissions suggest the effect of abciximab may provide benefit for up to 9 months for higher-risk diabetic patients.
Copyright 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.