Hyperglycemia as a prognosis predictor of length of stay and functional outcomes in patients with acute ischemic stroke.

Background: Hyperglycemia has been shown to influence prognosis outcome of stroke. The objective of this study was to determine the correlation between hyperglycemia with length of stay (LOS) and functional outcomes in ischemic stroke patients. This is the first study to correlate hyperglycemia in ischemic stroke patients with their functional outcome as assessed by using Barthel index.

Methods: This is a prospective cohort study of patients admitted to the Stroke Unit of Dr. Sardjito General Hospital for ischemic stroke from January 2012 to June 2014. Subjects were selected in a consecutive manner until the required number of subjects was obtained. Data collected from medical records included the baseline social demographic variables and clinical variables. Bivariate and multivariate analyses with multiple linear regression analysis were used to identify correlation between hyperglycemia with LOS and functional outcomes.

Results: In total, 208 patients were included, of which 126 (60.6%) were men. The mean age was 61.18 (SD = 10.45), and the mean LOS in our study was 4.52 (SD = 5.89) d. For the univariate analysis, factors associated with LOS were history of diabetes (p = 0.003), urinary tract infection (p = 0.025), hyperglycemia (p < 0.001) and moderate to severe Barthel index on admission (p < 0.001), and the independent factor was hyperglycemia (β: 6.212, p < 0.001) based on multivariate analysis. Furthermore, hyperglycemia was an independent factor of functional outcomes as measured with Barthel index (β: 9.185, p < 0.001).

Conclusions: Hyperglycemia is a prognosis predictor of LOS and functional outcomes of patients with acute ischemic stroke measured by discharge Barthel index.