The Effect of Previous Coronary-Artery Bypass Surgery on the Prognosis of Patients with Diabetes Who Have Acute Myocardial Infarction

In 1996, the Bypass Angioplasty Revascularization Investigation (BARI), a randomized trial, found that an initial strategy of coronary-artery bypass grafting (CABG), as compared with percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), significantly improved five-year survival among patients with medically treated diabetes. 1 , 2 This benefit was not observed in the periprocedural period; rather, it was a sustained, long-term effect, with the risk of death consistently reduced by about 50 percent throughout the five years of follow-up. No difference in survival was observed in this study among the patients who did not have diabetes. After eight years of follow-up, the Emory Angioplasty versus Surgery . . .