Early and Late Stent Thrombosis in Patients with Versus Without Diabetes Mellitus Following Percutaneous Coronary Intervention with Drug-Eluting Stents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Nowadays, drug-eluting stents (DES) are most commonly used compared with bare metal stents (BMS) since the former are associated with significantly lower rates of revascularization following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). However, unpredictable in-stent thrombosis is a major concern with DES, especially in patients with diabetes mellitus.

OBJECTIVE: In this analysis, we aimed to systematically compare early and late stent thrombosis in patients with versus without diabetes mellitus following PCI with DES.

METHODS: Studies were included if they were randomized controlled trials or observational studies comparing patients with diabetes mellitus versus those without it following PCI with DES and they reported acute and sub-acute/early and late stent thrombosis among their clinical outcomes. Early stent thrombosis was defined as stent thrombosis that occurred before 30 days and late stent thrombosis was defined as stent thrombosis that occurred after 30 days following PCI. The statistical analysis was carried out by the new version of the RevMan software (version 5.3), and odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were considered as the statistical parameters.

RESULTS: A total number of 18,910 patients were included in this analysis comparing early and late stent thrombosis in patients with diabetes mellitus (5123 patients) and in patients without diabetes mellitus (13,787 patients). Both groups of patients had similar rates of early stent thrombosis, with an OR of 1.30 (95% CI 0.89-1.91; P = 0.18, I2  = 9%) (4962 patients with diabetes mellitus were compared with 13,392 patients without diabetes mellitus). However, late stent thrombosis was significantly higher in patients with diabetes mellitus, with an OR of 1.95 (95% CI 1.35- 2.81; P = 0.0004, I2  = 0%) (5113 patients with diabetes mellitus and 13,775 patients without diabetes mellitus were compared).

CONCLUSIONS: Both patients with and without diabetes mellitus had a similar rate of early stent thrombosis following PCI with DES. However, diabetes mellitus was associated with a significantly higher rate of late stent thrombosis.