Blood glucose level on admission determines in-hospital and long-term mortality in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction complicated by cardiogenic shock treated with percutaneous coronary intervention.

BACKGROUND: It has been shown that hyperglycaemia is associated with increased in-hospital and long-term mortality in patients with myocardial infarction (MI). There are only a few reports on the relationship between glycaemia in the acute phase of MI complicated by cardiogenic shock (CS) and prognosis.

AIM: To assess the relationship between blood glucose level on admission and in-hospital as well as long-term mortality in patients with acute ST-segment elevation MI (STEMI) complicated by CS treated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

METHODS: Consecutive patients with STEMI complicated by CS treated with PCI were included. For the purpose of this analysis, the patients were divided into two groups: the first group included patients with glycaemia on admission < 7.8 mmol/L, and the other group patients with glycaemia > or = 7.8 mmol/L (hyperglycaemia group). Selected parameters from the in-hospital and long-term follow-up were compared between the two groups. Due to a possible linear relationship between blood glucose and mortality in multivariate analysis, glucose level on admission was treated as a continuous variable. The primary outcomes included in-hospital, 1-year and 5-year mortality.

RESULTS: Out of 3166 consecutive patients with STEMI, 258 had CS and available data on glycaemia. In patients with hyperglycaemia on admission, we observed higher in-hospital (41.5% vs 28%, p = 0.041), 1-year (51.4% vs 34.7%, p = 0.015) and 5-year (65.8% vs 43.3%, p = 0.034) mortality in comparison to the patients with blood glucose < 7.8 mmol/L. The multivariate analysis revealed that blood glucose level on admission (per each glycaemia increment by 1 mmol/L) was an independent prognostic factor of in-hospital (OR 1.08, 95% CI 1.02-1.14, p = 0.0044), 1-year (HR 1.04, 95% CI 1.01-1.06, p = 0.005) and 5-year mortality (HR 1.03, 95% CI 1.01-1.05, p = 0.045). Of note, the diagnosis of diabetes mellitus had no influence on in-hospital and long-term mortality.

CONCLUSIONS: Elevated blood glucose level on admission, regardless of the diagnosis of diabetes mellitus, results in increased in-hospital and long-term mortality in patients with STEMI complicated by CS and treated with PCI.