Association of hyperglycemia ratio and ventricular arrhythmia in critically ill patients admitted to the intensive care unit

INTRODUCTION: The relationship between relative hyperglycemia and ventricular arrhythmia (VA) in critically ill patients admitted to intensive care units (ICU) remains unclear. This study aims to investigate the association between stress hyperglycemia ratio (SHR) and VA in this population. METHODS: This retrospective and observational study analyzed data from 4324 critically ill patients admitted to the ICU, obtained from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care IV (MIMIC-IV) database. The SHR was calculated as the highest blood glucose level during the first 24 h of ICU admission divided by the admission blood glucose level. Based on the optimal cut-off values under the receiver operating characteristic curve, patients were stratified into high SHR (≥ 1.31) and low SHR (< 1.31) group. To investigate the impact of diabetes mellitus (DM) on the outcome, patients were stratified as low SHR/DM; low SHR/non-DM; high SHR/DM, and high SHR/non-DM. Restricted cubic spline (RCS) and logistic regression analysis were performed to analyze the relationship between SHR and VA. RESULTS: A total of 4,324 critically ill patients were included in this retrospective and observational study. The incidence of VA was higher in the high SHR group. Multiple-adjusted RCS revealed a “J-shaped” correlation between SHR and VA morbidity. The logistic regression model demonstrated that high SHR was associated with VA. The high SHR/non-DM group had a higher risk of VA than other groups stratified based on SHR and DM. Subgroup analysis showed that high SHR was associated with an increased risk of VA in patients with coronary artery disease. CONCLUSION: High SHR is an independent risk factor and has potential as a biomarker of higher VT/VF risk in ICU-admitted patients. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12872-023-03208-9.