Improved outcome of patients with diabetes mellitus with good glycemic control in the cardiac intensive care unit: a retrospective study

BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a prevalent metabolic disease characterized by chronic hyperglycemia. A primary burden of DM is related to its long-term complications, which have been shown to impact the course of hospitalization and to influence patients’ outcome. AIM: To assess the role of in-hospital glucose control on length of stay, 30-days and 1-year mortality. METHODS: This is a retrospective study that included patients admitted to the cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) of the Edith Wolfson Medical Centre between 01 January, 2010 and 31 December 2013. Blood glucose was measured by glucometer and fed into an interactive database. Glucose status was referred to as controlled when more than 50% of a given patients glucose values were between 71 and 200 mg/dL. Chisquared tests were used to assess the distribution of categorical variables, while the ttest was applied for continuous variables. A multivariate logistic regression model was used to analyze the association between glucose control and mortality. Cox regression was conducted to assess survival and 1-year mortality. RESULTS: 2466 patients were admitted to the CICU over the study period, of which 370 had concomitant diabetes mellitus. Controlled glucose status was associated with shorter length of hospital stay (1.6 ± 1.7 versus 2.6 ± 3.0, p < 0.001), reduced 30-day mortality (0.7% versus 4.6%, p < 0.001), and improved 1-year mortality (2.2% versus 7.5%, p < 0.001). Moreover, attainment of glucose control was independently associated with a significant decrease in 1-year mortality (OR = 0.371, 95% CI 0.140–0.988, p = 0.047). CONCLUSION: In-hospital control of glucose parameters is associated with shorter length of hospital stay, and lowered 30-day and 1-year mortality. An effort to maintain glucose levels within reference ranges is warranted in critically ill patients to reduce mortality.