Background: Recent findings indicate that high glycemic variability (GV) could increase the risk of adverse outcomes in patients with cardiovascular disease. With the advances in technology, the utility of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) has grown during recent years, which can provide valuable information that is not captured by HbA1c. We used the glucose coefficient of variation (CV, calculated as the ratio of standard deviation divided by the mean glucose level) of the obtained CGM data to analyze GV. Aims: We aimed to analyze CGM-derived CV as an indicator of GV and to evaluate prognostic implications of CGM-derived CV in patients hospitalized for acute heart failure (HF). Methods: Patients hospitalized for HF who had not been diagnosed diabetes were performed 75g-oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). CV was evaluated using CGM system for at least 72 consecutive hours after being able to have meals stably during hospitalization. The primary outcome was a composite of cardiovascular death or re-hospitalization for HF. Patients were divided into two groups based on the median value of CV. Results: We prospectively analyzed 130 patients (mean age: 76±10 years, male 56%) admitted for acute HF. Following the 75g-OGTT, only 21% of the entire cohort exhibited normal glucose tolerance. During the median follow up period of 905 days, Kaplan–Meier curve analysis revealed that the cumulative incidence of the primary outcome event was significantly higher in patients with CV above median than in those with CV less than median (51.7% versus 24.4%, Log-rank P=0.01)(Figure). Multivariate Cox proportional analysis demonstrated that the risk of CV per 1% increment for the primary outcome was significant adjusted for history of diabetes, CGM-derived mean glucose level, and HbA1c level (hazard ratio: 1.06, 95% confidence interval 1.03–1.09). Conclusions: CGM-derived CV was associated with long term prognosis of patients hospitalized for HF with or without diabetes.
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