Decade Long Temporal Trends in Revascularization for Patients With Diabetes Mellitus (From the Northern New England Cardiovascular Disease Study Group).

The FREEDOM trial demonstrated superiority of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) for patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) and multivessel coronary artery disease (MV CAD) as compared to percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with drug eluting stent (PCI-DES). We sought to study the impact of the FREEDOM trial on clinical practice. We studied trends in the use of CABG vs. PCI and factors associated with revascularization strategy among 6,985 patients with concomitant CAD and MV CAD at 7 centers pre- and post-trial (2008-2012 vs. 2013-2017) as well as hospital outcomes. Multivariable mixed effects logistic regression was performed to identify risk factors associated with choice of revascularization strategy among the patients with 3-vessel CAD (3V CAD). 41% of patients had 3V CAD and 18% were ≥75 years of age. While PCI-DES was the preferred strategy in 2-vessel CAD (2V CAD), 72% of patients with 3V CAD underwent CABG. For patients with 3V CAD, the ratio of CABG to PCI-DES procedures was 2.47 over the decade and did not differ pre- and post-trial (adjusted odds ratio (OR) for CABG (vs. PCI) 1.01, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.84-1.20). Independent risk factors of CABG among patients with DM and 3V CAD included peripheral arterial disease and absence of prior myocardial infarction and prior PCI. The risk factors for PCI were female sex (OR 0.60, 95% CI 0.50-0.73, p<0.001) and age ≥75 (OR 0.50, 95% CI 0.35-0.72, p<0.001). Center based variability was observed for CABG vs. PCI (center effect, rho=14%, p<0.001). In conclusion, PCI-DES is the preferred strategy for DM patients with MV CAD. Yet, among those with 3V CAD, CABG was chosen in ¾ of patients with no change in clinical practice related to the publication of the FREEDOM trial.