People diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes are at risk for coronary artery disease, in which the arteries that feed blood to the heart muscle become clogged with cholesterol.
Type 2 diabetics often suffer high levels of cholesterol, with too much LDL or "bad" cholesterol and too little HDL or "good" cholesterol, a combination that can lead to arterial clogging.
Researchers at Mays Hospital and Gazi University and the University of Gothenborg in Sweden reported the results of a study showing a higher rate of coronary heart disease in diabetic patients with poor blood sugar control than in those with good control.
Their work, published in the Bosnian Journal of Medical Science in February 2014, included 301 diabetic patients being tested for disease in their coronary arteries...

• among diabetic patients with HbA1c levels of over 7 percent, 46.
  6 percent needed to have surgery performed for clogged arteries.
  
• among those diabetics with HbA1c levels of 7 or less, 28.
  0 percent needed the surgery.
  

In February 2014, the medical journal Angiology reported the results of another study associating a high risk of disease in the arteries of the heart with diabetes.
Researchers at Hamad General Hospital in Qatar compared 252 patients with kidney disease.
Sixty percent had diabetes...

• sixty-four percent of diabetic patients had coronary artery disease, compared with
• 33 percent of non-diabetics.
  

Type 2 diabetes can go undiagnosed for years, leading scientists in India to wonder whether people diagnosed with disease in their coronary arteries should be screened for Type 2 diabetes.
In a study reported on in July 2013 in the Journal of the Armed Forces of India, they looked at 794 men who had never been diagnosed with diabetes...

• 311 of them were being tested for evaluation of coronary artery disease and
• 483 were healthy controls.
  

A total of

• 538 percent of the heart disease patients were found to be diabetic while only
• 23.
  6 percent of the controls had the condition.
  

From this information it was concluded patients diagnosed with coronary artery disease should be routinely tested for Type 2 diabetes.
Because diabetes is harmful to the heart and blood vessels, patients with heart and blood vessel disease need to know if they have a case of Type 2 diabetes they need to get under control.
Anyone with a diagnosis of coronary artery disease or heart attack should discuss with his or her doctor the possibility of diabetes.
This is particularly important for individuals over 55, overweight, obese, or with a family history of Type 2 diabetes.