Frequency of in-patients hyperglycemia in a medical ward of a Tertiary Care Hospital at Lahore

Background: hyperglycemia (diabetes or stress-hyperglycemia) is quite frequent in hospital setting,and is of prognostic importance. no study in pakistan has so far looked into frequency of hyperglycemia in medical in-patients. aim: to find out the frequency of known diabetics,and hyperglycemia in all patients admitted in medical unit and to find out the frequency of hyperglycemia in various disease categories. methods: a retrospective chart review was done of patients admitted from oct 2012 to sep 2013 in a medical unit of department of internal medicine,king edward medical university lahore. known diabetics were evident from history or medical record. to be treated hyperglycemia was defined as having blood sugar level≥180mg/dl,hyperglycemia to be investigated for occult diabetes was defined as having blood sugar level≥140 mg/dl and possible undiagnosed diabetes was defined as having blood sugar level≥200mg/dl. results: among total of 1889 participants in our study,949 were male,and 940 were female. mean age of study population was 49+19.6 years. overall,24.3% (459) of admitted patients were (19.5% of males and 29.1% of females) were known diabetics. among those not known to be diabetic (n=1430),430(30%) had readings≥200mg/dl. almost 53% had blood sugar≥140mg/dl during their hospital admission. overall frequency of to-be treated hyperglycemia (≥180mg/dl) was 48%. very high blood sugar≥350 mg/dl was found in 13.7% of all hospital admissions. mean blood sugar of the study population was 210±117mg/dl,that of known diabetics was 313±125 mg/dl,while it was 177±94mg/dl in others. patients with septicemia,renal,liver,cardiac diseases,and stroke had a high toll of hyperglycemia. conclusion: almost 1/4th of our medical admissions are diagnosed diabetics while another third are potentially undiagnosed diabetics. almost half of the patients are candidate for treatment of hyperglycemia in medical ward.