Background and purpose: We aimed to determine the association between stress hyperglycemia and risk of new stroke in patients with a minor ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack.
Methods: A subgroup of 3026 consecutive patients from 73 prespecified sites of the CHANCE trial (Clopidogrel in High-Risk Patients With Acute Nondisabling Cerebrovascular Events) were analyzed. Stress hyperglycemia was measured by glucose/glycated albumin (GA) ratio. Glucose/GA ratio was calculated by fasting plasma glucose divided by GA and categorized into 4 even groups according to the quartiles. The primary outcome was a new stroke (ischemic or hemorrhagic) at 90 days. We assessed the association between glucose/GA ratio and risk of stroke by multivariable Cox regression models adjusted for potential covariates.
Results: Among 3026 patients included, a total of 299 (9.9%) new stroke occurred at 3 months. Compared with patients with the lowest quartile, patients with the highest quartile of glucose/GA ratio was associated with an increased risk of stroke at 3 months after adjusted for potential covariates (12.0% versus 9.2%; adjusted hazard ratio, 1.46; 95% confidence interval, 1.06-2.01). Similar results were observed after further adjusted for fasting plasma glucose. We also observed that higher level of glucose/GA ratio was associated with an increased risk of stroke with a threshold of 0.29 using a Cox regression model with restricted cubic spline.
Conclusions: Stress hyperglycemia, measured by glucose/GA ratio, was associated with an increased risk of stroke in patients with a minor ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack.
Clinical trial registration: URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT00979589.
Keywords: clopidogrel; diabetes mellitus; hyperglycemia; risk; stroke.
© 2017 American Heart Association, Inc.