Hypoglycemia Screening of Coronary Patients

A study has shown that coronary patients with hypoglycemia have higher cancer mortality rates than other patients, which suggests that screening coronary patients for hypoglycemica may be useful. The study was presented at the annual congress of the European Society of Cardiology in Berlin (Germany).

Investigators studied the relationship between low plasma glucose levels and all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality in a large population of coronary patients with an eight-year follow-up period. The study involved 14,670 patients with a previous myocardial infarction and/or stable anginal syndrome. The patients were divided into six groups after screening for fasting blood glucose levels: hypoglycemic (up to 69 mg/dl), low normal (70-79 mg/dl), normoglycemic 80-109 mg/dl, impaired fasting glucose (110-125 mg/dl, borderline diabetecs (126-139 mg/dl), and diabetics (> 140 mg/dl).

Patients were followed from 6.5 to 9.6 years. Although the researchers found that cardiovascular mortality was not increased in hypoglycemic patients, all-cause and cancer mortality rates were significantly higher in this group (> 70 mg/dl). They say this indicates that hypoglycemica seems to be an early harbinger of substantially increased all-cause and cancer mortality among patients with coronary artery disease.

The researchers, from the Cardiac Rehabilitation Institute and Neufeld Cardiac Research Institute (Tel-Hashomer, Israel), believe that identification of low fasting glucose levels could be a very important additional marker of mortality risk in coronary patients. Further studies are needed, however, to explore the underlying mechanisms of hypoglycemica and its interrelationship with malignancy and mortality.