Does stress hyperglycemia affect mortality? Acute myocardial infarction – case control study

INTRODUCTION: We aimed to investigate the effect of stress (acute) hyperglycemia in patients with acute coronary syndrome who had not been previously diagnosed with diabetes mellitus (DM) on the prognosis of the disease in terms of mortality. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Patients who were admitted to the Adana Numune Training and Research Hospital Emergency Service Clinic between August 2010 and August 2013 and whose plasma blood glucose level was over 140 mg/dl at the time of admission but were not previously diagnosed with DM, who were over the age of 18 and considered to have acute myocardial infarction were included. RESULTS: A total of 259 patients whose data were fully attainable were included in the study. 80.3% (n = 208) of the patients were male and 19.7% (n = 41) were female. Non-ST elevation myocardial infarction was found in 71.6%, ST elevation myocardial infarction was found in 28.4% of the patients with stress hyperglycemia. It was determined that 10.1% of patients with stress-related hyperglycemia and 1.3% of patients without stress-related hyperglycemia had died. CONCLUSIONS: The plasma blood glucose level at presentation of patients diagnosed with acute myocardial infarction at the emergency room is associated with early in-hospital mortality.