Does diabetes mellitus increase the mortality risk in coronary artery disease patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting surgery at the National Heart Institute of Kuala Lumpur?

Globally, the number of patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) has increased to almost 451 million in 2017 and has become a worldwide epidemic. Even more worrisome is that 49.7% of them remain undiagnosed.1 Studies have shown that coronary artery disease (CAD) is the principal cause of mortality in DM patients and linked with significantly higher cardiovascular mortality due to myocardial infarction and stroke.2,3 DM has always been a major risk predictor for unfavourable outcomes in patients undergoing cardiac revascularization either percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI)4 or coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG),5,6 surgery.