Platelet perturbations in diabetes: Implications for cardiovascular disease risk and treatment

The prevalence of Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) continues to increase globally and brings with it a parallel increase in the associated cardiovascular disease complications. Despite advances in evidence-based therapies for cardiovascular disease risk modification, many of which are especially effective among patients with DM, there remains a residual degree of cardiovascular disease risk associated with DM, yielding opportunity for continued clinical advances. Given the myriad perturbations of platelet function associated with DM, improvements in antiplatelet therapies hold particular promise for this high-risk population of patients, with emerging data from ex vivo assessments and clinical outcomes trials providing a basis of support for this concept.