Objective: To document association of hyperglycemia with mortality in septicemic patients. Methods: After approval from departmental review committee, this retrospective comparative study was conducted from the chart review of 197 medical files of patients with primary diagnosis of bacterial sepsis admitted in a medical unit of department of Internal Medicine, King Edward Medical University Lahore from October 2012 to Septfember 2013. Sepsis was defined as by international sepsis definitions conference criteria 2001. "Diabetics" were evident from history; the term non-diabetic was used for the rest. Highest blood sugar value recorded during admission with Optium Xceed glucometer was used for analysis. Mean blood sugar of discharged and deceased patients were compared (t-test), mortality of diabetic and nondiabetic patients was compared by frequency of hyperglycemia (≥ 200 mg/dl) by chi-square test. SSPS version 20 was used. A p-value < 0.05 was considered significant.Results: Mean age of patients was 59.8 years, 92 (46.7%) males, and 105 (53.3%) were females. Mean blood sugar was high in known diabetics (314 ± 129 mg/dl), and non-diabetics (210 ± 109 mg/dl). Higher mean blood sugar was significantly associated with mortality in females (p = 0.032); trend towards significance was found in non-diabetic females (p = 0.065). Association of mortality in relation to hyperglycemia (Blood sugar ≥ 200 mg/dl), was found significant in whole study group (p = 0.038); sub-analysis revealed prominent association in non-diabetics (p = 0.027), and females (p = 0.04).
Conclusion:Despite certain limitations of this study, hyperglycemia (blood sugar >200 mg/dl) may be a bad prognostic marker in septicemic non-diabetic female population; they need special attention for earlier and aggressive treatment.