Revascularisation and the diabetic patient: the potential role of drug-eluting stents

Revascularisation and the diabetic patient: the potential role of drug-eluting stents David Barrow David Barrow, a medical journalist with a special interest in interventional cardiology, discusses the potential benefit of drug-eluting stents in relationship to the revascularisation of the diabetic patient. It has been estimated that 13% to 25% of the patients undergoing coronary revas-cularisation procedures have diabetes and the diabetic patient continues to face higher mortality rates than non-diabetic patients after revascularisation. There is much debate on the preferred method of revascularisation in the diabetic patient: percutaneous transluminal intervention (PCI) or coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG).