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OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of insulin-glucose infusion on metabolic control and hypoglycemic episodes and its feasibility and safety in patients with diabetes and myocardial infarction (MI) compared with conventional treatment. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Of 327 patients with suspected acute MI 158 were randomized to insulin-glucose infusion for at least 24 h and 169 received conventional therapy. We determined the 24-h blood glucose profile in the infusion group, the degree of metabolic control, hypoglycemic events, and in-hospital complications within the two study groups. RESULTS: Blood glucose fell from 14.6 +/- 2.9 to 9.2 +/- 2.9 mM during the first 24 h in patients receiving insulin-glucose and from 15.8 +/- 4.3 to 12.0 +/- 4.4 mM in control patients (P < 0.01). Serum potassium decreased 0.21 +/- 0.56 mM in the infusion group (P < 0.001) and 0.11 +/- 0.59 mM in the control group (P < 0.05). The difference between the groups was not significant. Twenty-eight of the 158 patients developed an episode of hypoglycemia (blood glucose < 3.0 mM) during the insulin-glucose infusion. There were no significant differences in the number of episodes of ventricular tachyarrhythmias or in ischemic events between patients with and without hypoglycemia. CONCLUSIONS: The protocol outlined in this study gives more rapid and better metabolic control than does conventional treatment. This treatment seems to be a feasible alternative for clinical attempts. Before it can be recommended for general use, the impact on mortality needs to be evaluated.
Malmberg et al. (Thu,) studied this question.