Abstract
BACKGROUND: Large intracoronary thrombus burden is not rare during primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Stress hyperglycemia is independently associated with poor prognosis. However, the underlying relationship between stress hyperglycemia and thrombus burden remains unknown. This study aims to investigate the association of stress hyperglycemia, evaluated by the combination of acute and chronic glycemic levels, with intracoronary thrombus burden in diabetic patients with STEMI. METHODS: We enrolled 227 consecutive diabetic patients with STEMI undergoing primary PCI within 12 hours after symptom onset. Stress hyperglycemia was estimated using the stress hyperglycemia ratio (SHR), which was calculated as admission glycemia divided by estimated average glucose derived from glycosylated hemoglobin. Based on reclassified angiographic thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) thrombus grades, patients were divided into small thrombus burden (STB) group (TIMI thrombus grades <4) and large thrombus burden (LTB) group (TIMI thrombus grades 4 or 5). RESULTS: Of the entire study population, 77 (33.9%) patients were categorized as LTB group, whereas 150 (66.1%) patients presented with STB. The mean age was 64.1 years, and 80.6% of the patients were male. The SHR levels were significantly higher in patients with LTB than in those with STB [1.31; interquartile range (IQR): 1.13-1.48 versus 1.11; IQR: 0.96-1.32; P<0.001]. The predictive performance of SHR for LTB was moderate (area under the curve: 0.669; 95% confidence interval: 0.604-0.730; P<0.001), with the best cut-off value 1.19 (sensitivity 71.4%, specificity 64.7%). The incidence of LTB with SHR ≥1.19 was significantly higher compared with SHR <1.19 (50.9% versus 18.5%; P<0.001). Based on the multivariable logistic regression analysis, the high SHR (≥1.19) was found to be an independent predictor of LTB following adjustment for baseline clinical confounders. CONCLUSIONS: A high SHR value was independently associated with large thrombus burden and has a better predictive value than glycemia at admission in diabetic patients with STEMI undergoing primary PCI. Stress hyperglycemia may play an important role on the intracoronary thrombus formation.