Diabetes mellitus type 2 and acute myocardial infarction: prognostic options for interaction in patients of different age groups

Background . Problems surrounding comorbidities of type 2 diabetes mellitus and coronary heart disease are some of the most important in medical science and practice, given their mutually negative impact on patients’ prognoses and quality of life. Aims . To study the impact of type 2 diabetes on the long-term prognoses of patients of different age categories, status-post acute myocardial infarction. (Data obtained from the ‘Register of Acute Myocardial Infarction’.) Materials and methods . The main data source was the ‘Register of Acute Myocardial Infarction’, maintained in Tomsk for more than 30 years. The study included 862 patients with acute myocardial infarction. The patients were monitored for 5 years. The primary endpoint was death from any cause during the observation period. Results . We separated the study cohort into 2 groups depending on patients’ ages: Group 1 (n = 358) included patients older than working age, Group 2 (n = 504) consisted of younger, employable patients. The combination of ischaemic heart disease and type 2 diabetes mellitus were diagnosed in 208 patients. The combination of ischaemic heart disease and type 2 diabetes was the cause of adverse prognosis among elderly patients and led to increased mortality rate during the 5-year post-infarction period (p = 0.0003). However, among younger, working patients who suffered myocardial infarction, the presence of type 2 diabetes did not have an independent negative effect on long-term disease prognosis. While in employable patients, a long history of diabetes mellitus significantly aggravated the course of the post-infarction period (p = 0.004). Conclusions . These data suggest an ambiguous prognostic effect of type 2 diabetes mellitus among working age and elderly patients status post myocardial infarction, in agreement with experimental studies conducted on laboratory animals. Further comprehensive analyses of the clinical and experimental data are needed to optimise therapies for patients who suffer from type 2 diabetes and comorbid ischaemic heart disease.