Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2006;10(3):216.
doi: 10.1186/cc4957. Epub 2006 Jun 27.

Hyperglycaemia in critically ill patients: marker or mediator of mortality?

Anouk M Corstjens  1 , Iwan C C van der Horst, Jan G Zijlstra, A B Johan Groeneveld, Felix Zijlstra, Jaap E Tulleken, Jack J M Ligtenberg
Affiliations
Review

Hyperglycaemia in critically ill patients: marker or mediator of mortality?

Anouk M Corstjens et al. Crit Care. 2006.

Abstract

Acute hyperglycaemia has been associated with complications, prolonged intensive care unit and hospital stay, and increased mortality. We made an inventory of the prevalence and prognostic value of hyperglycaemia, and of the effects of glucose control in different groups of critically ill patients. The prevalence of hyperglycaemia in critically ill patients, using stringent criteria, approaches 100%. An unambiguous negative correlation between hyperglycaemia and mortality has been described in various groups of critically ill patients. Although the available evidence remains inconsistent, there appears to be a favourable effect of glucose regulation. This effect on morbidity and mortality depends on patient characteristics. To be able to compare results of future studies involving glucose regulation, better definitions of hyperglycaemia (and consequently of normoglycaemia) and patient populations are needed.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Survival by blood glucose level. Shown are Kaplan-Meier survival curves for patients without known diabetes mellitus and admission blood glucose levels less than 141 mg/dl (7.8 mmol/l; group 1), 141–199 mg/dl (7.8–11.0 mmol/l; group 2) and 200.0 mg/dl (11.1 mmol/l) or higher (group 3), and patients with previously diagnosed with diabetes (group 4). Adapted from Stranders and coworkers [16].
Figure 2
Figure 2
Relationship between mean blood glucose during ICU stay and ICU mortality. Blood glucose levels are given in mmol/l. Data are from 1085 consecutive mixed ICU patients [4]. ICU, intensive care unit.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Lind L, Lithell H. Impaired glucose and lipid metabolism seen in intensive care patients is related to severity of illness and survival. Clin Intensive Care. 1994;5:100–105. - PubMed
    1. Yendamuri S, Fulda GJ, Tinkoff GH. Admission hyperglycemia as a prognostic indicator in trauma. J Trauma. 2003;55:33–38. - PubMed
    1. Pittas AG, Siegel RD, Lau J. Insulin therapy for critically ill hospitalized patients: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Arch Intern Med. 2004;164:2005–2011. - PubMed
    1. Ligtenberg JJ, Meijering S, Stienstra Y, Horst ICC, Vogelzang M, Nijsten MW, Tulleken JE, Zijlstra JG. Mean glucose level is not an independent risk factor for mortality in mixed ICU patients. Intensive Care Med. 2006;32:435–438. - PubMed
    1. Umpierrez GE, Isaacs SD, Bazargan N, You X, Thaler LM, Kitabchi AE. Hyperglycemia: an independent marker of in-hospital mortality in patients with undiagnosed diabetes. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2002;87:978–982. - PubMed