Coronary Atherosclerosis in Diabetics: A Postmortem Teaching Hospital Experience in South-South Nigeria

Context: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a risk factor for the development of coronary artery disease. It is plausible that there is no significant association in the grade/severity of coronary atherosclerosis in diabetics in comparison with nondiabetics. Aims: The aim of this study, therefore, was to test this hypothesis by assessing the association of DM on the grade of coronary atherosclerosis. Settings and Design: This study was carried out at the Department of Morbid Anatomy, University of Benin Teaching as a prospective postmortem study. Subjects and Methods: This study employed consecutive sampling technique for recruiting the study population from June 1, 2012, to May 31, 2013. At postmortem, the coronary artery of each subject was graded into one of four grades on the basis of the percentage of cross-sectional area stenosis. Statistical analysis used: the data obtained were analyzed with Chi-square, Mann–Whitney U-test, Spearman's correlation, and multinomial logistic regression to determine the association/relationship between DM and coronary atherosclerosis. Results: Fifty-two cases constituted the study population. Their age ranged from 23 to 82 years with a mean age of 50.35 years (standard deviation = 16.62), median age of 50 years and modal age of 36 years. The severity of the grades of coronary atherosclerosis increased with age. There was a statistically significant association between the atherosclerotic grades of those participants with DM in comparison with those without the disease. Conclusion: The null hypothesis is therefore rejected as there is a statistical significant association in the grades of atherosclerosis in the study population with and without DM.