Elevated stress hyperglycemia and the presence of intracranial artery stenosis increase the risk of recurrent stroke.

Background: Stress hyperglycemia has served as a reliable biomarker to predict poor outcomes after ischemic stroke. However, recent studies have reported some contrary conclusions. Different stroke subtypes may respond inconsistently to stress hyperglycemia. The progression of intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis (ICAS) is tightly related to hyperglycemia. Thus, this study aims to determine the relationship between stress hyperglycemia and recurrent stroke in ischemic stroke patients with or without intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis.

Methods: This is a multicenter retrospective observational cohort study. Patients with acute minor ischemic stroke and eligible computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging data were enrolled. The severity of stress hyperglycemia is measured by the stress hyperglycemia ratio (SHR). SHR was calculated based on fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels. The primary outcome was stroke recurrence during hospitalization. The interaction of SHR levels with the presence of ICAS on the primary outcome was investigated using univariable and multivariable Cox proportional hazards models. Restricted cubic splines were applied to determine the nonlinear relationship between SHR and primary outcome. A two-piecewise linear regression model was used to identify the threshold of SHR.

Results: A total of 610 participants were included in the study. The average age of the patients was 61.4 ± 12.9 years old, and approximately 70% of participants were males. A total of 189 (30.98%) patients had ICAS. The patients were categorized into 3 groups based on the tertiles of SHR. Compared with the group with a lower SHR, a higher SHR was significantly associated with the risk of stroke recurrence in the ICAS group (hazard ratio [HR], 8.52, 95% confidence interval [CI], 3.16-22.96, P<0.001). When SHR was treated as a continuous variable, each 0.1-unit increase in SHR in the ICAS group was associated with a 1.63-fold increase in the risk of recurrence (HR, 1.63, 95% CI, 1.39-1.9, P<0.001) with a threshold of 0.75. FPG but not HbA1c was associated with stroke recurrence in ICAS patients (HR, 1.17, 95% CI, 1.08-1.26, P<0.001). Sensitive analyses showed consistent results after adjusting for previous diabetes mellitus, oral hypoglycemic agents and insulin injection.

Conclusions: SHR represents a better biomarker to predict the risk of stroke recurrence in patients with ICAS than FPG and HbA1c regardless of previous diabetes mellitus.

Trial Registration: https://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=125817; Identifier, [ChiCTR2100046958].