Prognostic implication of stress hyperglycemia in patients with acute coronary syndrome undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention

BACKGROUND: It is now understood that stress hyperglycemia is associated with adverse outcomes in hospitalized patients. Herein, we aimed to investigate the association between stress hyperglycemia and mortality risk in acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). METHODS: This cohort study comprised 5190 ACS patients who underwent PCI from the Cardiovascular Center Beijing Friendship Hospital Database Bank (CBDBANK) from January 2013 to January 2021. Stress hyperglycemia was defined by the glucose/glycated albumin (GA) ratio, calculated as admission fasting plasma glucose divided by GA. The patients were divided into four groups according to glucose/GA ratio quartiles (Q1-Q4). Cox proportional hazards regression and restricted cubic spline were used to evaluate the association between glucose/GA ratio and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. RESULTS: During a median follow-up of 4.0 years, the number of all-cause deaths was 313 (6.0%) and cardiovascular-associated deaths was 177 (3.4%). After adjustment for potential confounders, the risk of all-cause mortality increased in the lowest (HR, 1.43; 95% CI, 1.01–2.03) and highest (HR, 1.51; 95% CI, 1.03–2.21) glucose/GA ratio quartiles compared to Q2. The restricted cubic splines showed that the association between glucose/GA ratio and all-cause mortality was U-shaped after full adjustment (P (nonlinear) = 0.008). Similar results were observed for cardiovascular mortality. In subgroup analyses according to diabetes status, the U-shaped relationship was only significant in patients with diabetes mellitus. CONCLUSION: In ACS patients undergoing PCI, low and high glucose/GA ratio values were associated with an increased all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, especially in those with diabetes mellitus. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12933-023-01790-y.