Strategies for multivessel revascularization in patients with diabetes

Abstract

Evaluation of: Farkouh ME, Domanski M, Sleeper LA et al. Strategies for multivessel revascularization in patients with diabetes. N. Engl. J. Med. 367, 2375–2384 (2012). The FREEDOM trial enrolled 1900 patients with diabetes and multivessel coronary disease to percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with drug-eluting stents or coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). In the drug-eluting stents arm, 94% were treated with the first-generation drug-eluting stents. The median duration of follow-up among survivors was 3.8 years. The primary outcome, a composite of death from any cause, nonfatal myocardial infarction or nonfatal stroke, occurred more frequently in the PCI group, with 5-year rates of 26.6% in the PCI group and 18.7% in the CABG group, a statistically significant relative-risk reduction of 30%. Stroke rates were significantly higher in the CABG group, with 5-year rates of 2.4% in the PCI group and 5.2% in the CABG group.