Health Alert: High blood sugar may raise pneumonia death risk

GREETINGS,

  Health Alert: High blood sugar may raise pneumonia death risk

SOURCE: PRESSTV

Community acquired pneumonia is one of the leading infectious disease in developed nations and is a major cause of morbidity and mortality.

The new study included about 6,900 older pneumonia patients who were admitted to hospitals and private practices in Austria, Germany and Switzerland between 2003 and 2009.

According to the findings published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), higher glucose levels were associated with higher mortality in all patients at 28 and 90 days. Moreover, the risk of death increased as admission glucose levels increased.

The risk of death was the highest among diabetic (14%) after 90 days regardless of their sugar levels on admission while non-diabetic patients with hyperglycemia on admission had a 10 percent mortality rate.

However, the mortality risk was only 3 percent for patients who neither had diabetes nor high glucose levels, wrote Dr. Philipp Lepper of the University Hospital of Saarland in Germany, and colleagues.

“Mortality starts to increase at only slightly elevated levels that remain below the defined threshold for overt diabetes,” the scientists added.

The findings highlights the necessity of glucose testing and close glucose monitoring after patients with community-acquired pneumonia are discharged from hospital, in order to diagnose diabetes and to prevent further complications, the study concluded.