An evaluation of coronary artery plaque burden in asymptomatic type 2 diabetics using dual-source CT coronary angiography

Introduction Current International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and American Diabetes Association (ADA) guidelines advocate investigation for coronary artery disease (CAD) in only those patients who have either typical/atypical cardiac symptoms or an abnormal resting ECG. As it is well established that diabetics with CAD may be asymptomatic, we hypothesised that a large proportion of asymptomatic diabetics may have coronary arterial plaques causing significant stenosis which goes undetected with current guidelines.