Coronary artery distensibility assessed by cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and healthy controls

Methods A total of 29 patients with DM treated with insulin (20 men, mean age 62 ± 10 years, mean ±SD) and 10 healthy, adult subjects (4 men, mean age 54 ± 4 years) were studied using a commercial whole-body 3.0 Tesla MRI system. In 13 (45%) patients with diabetes CAD was known (mean age 62 ± 10 years); in 16 (55%) DM patients CAD was absent (mean age 62 ± 11 years). The presence of CAD was defined using a previous coronary x-ray angiogram. In each subject, the proximal segment of a coronary artery was imaged for cross-sectional area measurements using cine spiral MRI [3]. Distensibility (mmHg-1*103) was determined as (lumen max lumen min)/(pulse pressure x lumen min) x 1000. The pulse pressure was calculated as the difference between the systolic and diastolic brachial blood pressure. All continuous parameters are given as mean + one standard deviation (SD). For all tests, p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. All tests were twosided.