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Hospital Admissions for Major Cardiovascular Events and Procedures Among People With and Without Diabetes

Although recent years have seen reduction in mortality and other events associated with coronary heart disease, we don't know if people with and without diabetes have benefited equally. In a paper published recently in Diabetes Care, Eszter Vamos and colleagues from the Department of Primary Care & Public Health at Imperial College London compared recent trends in hospital admission rates for angina, acute myocardial infarction (AMI), stroke, percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), and coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) among people with and without diabetes in England.

The found that in people with diabetes, admission rates for angina, AMI, and CABG decreased significantly by 5% , 5%, and 3% per year, respectively. Admission rates for stroke did not significantly change but increased for PCI in people with diabetes. People with and without diabetes experienced similar proportional changes for all outcomes, with no significant differences in trends between these groups. However, diabetes was associated with around a 3.5- to 5-fold risk of CVD events. Vamos and colleagues concluded that there were similar changes in admissions for CVD in people with and without diabetes. 

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