Admission glucose does not improve GRACE score at 6 months and 5 years after myocardial infarction

Admission plasma glucose (APG) is a biomarker that predicts mortality in myocardial infarction (MI) patients. Therefore, APG may improve risk stratification based on the GRACE risk score.

We collected data on baseline characteristics and long-term (median 55 months) outcome of 550 MI patients who entered our hospital in 2003 and 2006. We determined the GRACE risk score at admission for each patient, which was entered in a logistic regression model, together with APG, to evaluate their prognostic value for 6-month and 5-year mortality.

Patients with APG ≥7.8 mmol/l had a higher mortality than those with APG levels <7.8 mmol/l; 6 months: 13.7 versus 3.6%, p value <0.001; 5 years: 20.4 versus 11.1%, p value 0.003. After adjustment for the GRACE risk score variables, APG appeared a significant predictor of 6-month and 5-year mortality, adjusted OR 1.17 (1.06-1.29) and 1.12 (1.03-1.22). The combination of the GRACE risk score and APG increased the model's performance (discrimination C-index 0.87 vs. 0.85), although the difference was not significant (p = 0.095). Combining the GRACE risk score and APG reclassified 12.9% of the patients, but the net reclassification improvement was nonsignificant (p = 0.146).

APG is a predictor of 6-month and 5-year mortality, each mmol/l increase in APG being associated with a mortality increase of 17 and 12%, respectively, independent of the GRACE risk score. However, adding APG to the GRACE model did not result in significantly improved clinical risk stratification.