Glycemic Control Status and Long-Term Clinical Outcomes in Diabetic Chronic Total Occlusion Patients: An Observational Study

Background Whether good glycemic control can result in clinical benefits for diabetic chronic total occlusion (CTO) patients is still a matter of debate.Methods We studied 1029 diabetic CTO patients. Based on one-year glycosylated hemoglobin A (HbA1c) levels, we assigned the patients into 2 groups: HbA1c<7% group ( n  = 448) and HbA1c ≥ 7% group ( n  = 581). We further subdivided the patients into the successful CTO revascularization (CTO-SR) and nonsuccessful CTO revascularization (CTO-NSR) groups. Kaplan–Meier analysis and Cox regression before and after propensity score matching were used to compare major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) and other endpoints.Results There were no significant differences between the groups in terms of most endpoints in the overall patients. After propensity score-matched analysis, patients with HbA1c < 7.0 tended to be superior in terms of MACE, which was mainly attributed to repeat revascularization but the other endpoints. Furthermore, the benefit of the HbA1c < 7 group was more prominent among patients with CTO-NSR in terms of MACE, repeat revascularization, and target vessel revascularization (TVR); and the improvement of the HbAc1 < 7 group was more prominent among patients without chronic heart failure (CHF) ( P =0.027).Conclusions HbA1c < 7.0 was associated with a reduced incidence of MACE, which was mainly attributed to a reduction in repeat revascularization. Good glycemic control can improve diabetic CTO patients' clinical prognosis, especially in CTO-NSR patients.