Frequency of silent myocardial ischaemia in diabetics: a single centre study

Objective: To find the frequency of silent myocardial ischaemia in diabetics as compared to non-diabetics. Methods: This was a cross sectional study conducted between November 2008 and March 2010. Two hundred subjects were recruited by convenience sampling after informed cnosent. All were subjected to an exercise stress test. Electro-cardiographic changes were noted for silent Ischaemia Descriptive Statistics were applied for significance. Result: Of the 200 subjects included in the study, 31 had diabetes and 1`69 were non-diabetics. The mean age was 46±10 years. Twenty eight subjects tested positive for silent ischaemia, of whom six were diabetics(19%) and 22 were non-diabetics(13%).Hypertension and obesity were found more frequently in diabetics (48% Vs 27%) p=0.019 and (35% Vs 18%) p=0.027 respectively. Despite the greater proportion of diabetics having asymptomatic myocardial ischaemia as compared to nondiabetics statistical significance(p = 0.397) was not observed. Conclusion: There was no significant difference in the frequency of silent ischaemia amongst the two groups.