Prognostic importance of admission plasma glucose in diabetic and non-diabetic patients with acute myocardial infarction.

We assessed the relationship of plasma glucose concentrations measured on admission to mortality during the acute phase of myocardial infarction in 143 diabetic patients and 277 patients without a previous history of diabetes. Mortality in hospital in patients not known to have diabetes increased significantly from 4 per cent in patients with admission plasma glucose below 8 mmol/l to 35 per cent in patients with admission plasma glucose above 11 mmol/l. In diabetic patients the mortality increased with increasing admission plasma glucose but the difference was not significant. In patients with diabetes mean admission plasma glucose levels of the survivors and those who died were similar, whilst in the non-diabetic group the mean plasma glucose levels of the patients who did not survive were significantly higher than those of the survivors. Stepwise logistic regression analyses identified admission plasma glucose level as an important predictor of mortality in the non-diabetic group but not in the diabetic patients. Plasma glucose level on admission is an important prognostic indicator in non-diabetic patients, in that hyperglycaemia is associated with a higher mortality. In diabetic patients a clear relationship between admission plasma glucose and mortality was not demonstrated.