Two-Hour Post-Load Plasma Glucose, a Biomarker to Improve the GRACE Score in Patients without Known Diabetes

To assess improvement in predictive performance of Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events risk score (GRS) by addition of a glucose matrix.

1,056 acute coronary syndrome (ACS) survivors without known diabetes had pre-discharge fasting (FPG) and 2-h post-load plasma glucose (2h-PG) measured. GRS was calculated. Major adverse cardiac events (MACE; death and non-fatal myocardial infarction) were recorded during follow-up. Cox proportional hazard regression predicted event-free survival. Likelihood ratio test, Akaike's information criteria, continuous net reclassification index (NRI>0), and integrated discrimination improvement (IDI) were used to test the additional prognostic value of glycaemic indices over GRS.

During a median follow-up of 36.5 months, 211 MACEs (20.0%), 96 deaths (9.1%), and 115 non-fatal re-infarctions (10.9%), occurred. 2h-PG, but not FPG, independently predicted MACE-free survival at all time points (HR 1.08, 95% CI 1.03-1.13, p = 0.002, at 3 years). Risk of MACE increased by 8-11% with every 1 mmol/L rise in 2h-PG. 2h-PG significantly improved the prognostic models containing GRS. Models containing GRS and 2h-PG yielded lowest corrected Akaike's information criteria compared to that with only GRS. 2h-PG, but not FPG, improved NRI>0 (NRI>0 0.169, p = 0.028 at 3 years) and IDI (IDI of 0.66%, p = 0.018 at 3 years) significantly at all time points during the follow-up.

2h-PG, but not FPG, improves performance of GRS-containing models in predicting post-ACS prognosis in the short to medium term.