Elevated random glucose levels at admission are associated with all‐cause mortality and cardiogenic shock during hospitalisation in patients with acute myocardial infarction and without diabetes: A retrospective cohort study

Abstract Background Elevated glucose levels at admission are associated with a worse prognosis in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI); additionally, such elevation has a higher prognostic value for patients without diabetes. Methods We retrospectively recruited 2412 AMI patients without diabetes from 1 August 2011 to 10 January 2022. The primary outcome was all‐cause mortality during hospitalisation, and the secondary outcomes were cardiogenic shock, ventricular tachycardia, ventricular fibrillation, atrioventricular block and new stroke. Results The mean age of participants was 65 years and 78.6% were male. Of the 2412 patients, all‐cause mortality occurred in 236 patients (9.8%) during hospitalisation. In multivariate‐adjusted models that corrected for variable weights, the risk of all‐cause mortality increased with an increase in random glucose levels at admission; specifically, the risk of all‐cause mortality increased per 1 mg/dL (odds ratio [OR] 1.006, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.004–1.008), per 9 mg/dL (OR: 1.06, 95% CI: 1.04–1.08), and per 18 mg/dL (OR: 1.12, 95% CI: 1.07–1.16) increases in admission glucose levels. When admission glucose levels were expressed as a categorical variable, increased levels of glucose (relative to the reference glucose value <140 mg/dL) led to an increased risk of all‐cause mortality; specifically, the OR of all‐cause mortality for 140–200 mg/dL glucose was 1.55 (95% CI: 1.09–2.17) and the OR for glucose >200 mg/dL was 3.08 (95% CI: 2.00–4.62) ( P for trend <0.001). The risk of cardiogenic shock also increased with glucose levels with an OR of 1.68 (95% CI: 1.21–2.31) for 140–200 mg/dL glucose and an OR of 3.72 (95% CI: 2.50–5.46) for >200 mg/dL, compared with that of glucose <140 mg/dL. In multivariate‐adjusted spline regression models, an increased risk of all‐cause mortality was observed in patients with glucose ≥122 mg/dL (OR: 1.81, 95% CI: 1.38–2.38, p < 0.001) compared with the reference cohort. Furthermore, patients with glucose ≥111 mg/dL (OR: 2.36, 95% CI: 1.80–3.12) had a higher risk of cardiogenic shock than patients with glucose <111 mg/dL. Conclusions Patients with AMI and without diabetes who had elevated random glucose levels at admission had a higher risk of all‐cause mortality and cardiogenic shock during hospitalisation. In particular, patients with glucose ≥122 mg/dL had an increased risk of all‐cause mortality, and those with glucose ≥111 mg/dL had an increased risk of cardiogenic shock.