AMI up with stress-induced hyperglycemia after hip fx

(HealthDay)—For patients after hip fracture, stress-induced hyperglycemia is associated with an increased risk of acute myocardial infarction (AMI), according to a study published online July 11 in Diabetes Care.

Yan Chen, M.D., from Capital Medical University in Beijing, and colleagues examined the risk of AMI following stress hyperglycemia after hip fracture using data from 1,257 patients with no history of diabetes who suffered hip fractures. Patients were divided into stress hyperglycemia and non-hyperglycemia groups based on fasting blood glucose levels.

The researchers found that the frequency of stress hyperglycemia was 47.89 percent and the frequency of AMI was 9.31 percent. AMI occurred significantly more often in the stress hyperglycemia group (12.46 percent) than the non-hyperglycemia group (6.41 percent). For patients with stress hyperglycemia, fasting blood glucose levels peaked two to three days after hip fracture and decreased thereafter. In the stress hyperglycemia group, the incidence of AMI was highest in the initial three days after hip fracture (62.67 percent), coinciding significantly with the fasting blood glucose peak time. Non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (62.39 percent) occurred more often than ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (37.61 percent) among all patients with AMI.

"We conclude that stress-induced hyperglycemia increased the risk of AMI in patients with hip fractures," the authors write. "Stress-induced hyperglycemias after hip fracture should be identified early."