Glycemia at admission: the metabolic echocardiography in acute coronary syndrome patients.

BACKGROUND: Ventricular dysfunction in acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients is a recognized predictor of in-hospital and post-discharge morbidity and mortality. Recently, hyperglycemia at admission has been considered as an important marker of poor in-hospital prognosis.

AIM: To characterize an ACS population and to identify independent predictors of one-year mortality.

METHODS: This study included 1179 consecutive patients admitted to a single coronary care unit for acute coronary syndrome between May 2004 and December 2006. Patients were followed up for 12 months after ACS.

RESULTS: In our population, 70.9% of patients were male, with a mean age of 66.6+/-12.5 years; 15.7% were admitted by unstable angina, 44.7% by non-ST elevation myocardial infarction and 38.5% by ST elevation myocardial infarction; 16% of patients had left ventricular systolic dysfunction during the index admission. In-hospital mortality was 3.5% and complications occurred in 5.6% of patients. Mortality rate at 1-year of follow-up was 8.8% and rehospitalization rate for heart failure was 5.5%. After multivariate regression analysis, left ventricular systolic dysfunction [odds ratio (OR): 3.58; confidence interval (CI): 1.57-8.16], glycemia at admission >137 mg/dl (OR: 3.58; CI: 1.52-8.47) and age >65 years (OR: 2.67; CI: 1.08-6.59) were independent predictors of 1-year mortality.

CONCLUSION: In this population, hyperglycemia at admission was an independent predictor of 1-year mortality, with a predictive value equivalent to that of left ventricular systolic dysfunction. This fact, never before described, emphasizes the importance of metabolic abnormalities and their control in the prognosis of ACS patients.