Prognostic value of cardiac autonomic neuropathy independent and incremental to perfusion defects in patients with diabetes and suspected coronary artery disease.

We investigated the prognostic value of cardiac autonomic neuropathy (CAN) in relation to perfusion defects in 146 diabetic patients with suspected coronary artery disease. Perfusion defects and CAN were significant univariate predictors of death (p=0.05 and p<0.001, respectively) and cardiac events (p<0.001 and p<0.002, respectively). However, CAN remained a significant predictor of death and cardiac events after adjustment for perfusion defects (both p<0.02), and provided prognostic information incremental to that offered by perfusion defects alone (p<0.003 and p<0.006, respectively).