Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction and objectives: Hyperglycemia is a common problem in hospitalized patients, that increases infections, mortality, costs and the hospital stay. The objective of this study is to know the prevalence of hyperglycemia in our hospital.

Methods: We designed a cross-sectional observational study. We included patients admitted in the hospital every 3 days in 2 months. We excluded patients younger than 15 years, stays less than 3 days and those of the pediatric, gynecological, emergency and intensive care services. We collected the data from these patients the third day of admission and at discharge. We defined hyperglycemia as two or more capillary glucose values greater than 140 mg/dl.

Results: A total of 328 patients (173 females and 155 males) were included, with a median age of 73 years. The 75% were in medical services and 25% in surgical services. The main reason for admission was infection (26%), followed by organ failure (12%). 33% (109) patients had hyperglycemia. Of these patients, 71.6% (78) were known diabetics, while 28.4% (31) were not known diabetics. The median age of patients with hyperglycemia was 80 versus 68 years old in patients without hyperglycemia.

Conclusions: The prevalence of hyperglycemia in our hospital is higher than another areas, probably due to a higher mean age in our population. Almost one third of patients with hyperglycemia were not diabetic. Therefore hospitalization is an opportunity to diagnose and treat adequately these patients.