Background: There was a controversy regarding utility of screening asymptomatic CAD (coronary artery disease) in type 2 diabetic patients and which screening tests would be most useful. The purpose of this study was to explore the characteristics of the patients with CAD detected by CCTA (coronary CT angiography) in type 2 diabetes.

Methods: From May 2007 to May 2009, CCTA was performed in total 396 patients with type 2 diabetes who had no symptoms of CAD. Retrospective analyses were conducted based on the results of CCTA (group A; coronary artery stenosis >50%, group B; ���50%).

Results: Median age of the patients was 63 years, and 243 (61.4%) patients were male. Among 396 patients, 109 (27.5%) patients were included in Group A and 287 (72.5%) were included in Group B. Fifty-eight (53.2 %) patients in group A underwent coronary angiography and CAD was detected in 52 patients (positive predictive value 89.7 %). On multivariate analysis, the independent predictors of CAD were age (OR = 1.042; 95% CI; 1.011-1.075; p=0.008), sex (male) (OR = 2.150; 95% CI; 1.286-3.593; p=0.003), BMI (body mass index, OR = 1.096; 95% CI; 1.012-1.187, p=0.024) and duration of diabetes mellitus (years) (OR = 1.037; 95% CI; 1.004-1.072, p=0.030).

Conclusions: CCTA has a high positive predictive value (89.7%) to detect asymptomatic CAD in patients with type 2 diabetes. CCTA appeared to be useful screening tool for asymptomatic CAD in patients with type 2 diabetes, especially in old male patients with high BMI and long duration of diabetes mellitus.