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Objective:

To study the impact of diabetes mellitus on the relationship between glycemia and mortality in critically ill patients.

Design:

Retrospective observational study.

Setting:

Intensive care units of two university hospitals.

Patients:

Cohort of 4946 critically ill patients including 728 patients with diabetes mellitus.

Intervention:

None.

Measurements and Main Results:

We assessed and compared the relationship between glycemia during intensive care unit stay and mortality in diabetic and nondiabetic patients. There were 125,036 blood glucose measurements (5.7 measurements/day on average). Intensive care unit mortality increased significantly with increasing mean blood glucose concentration in nondiabetes mellitus patients but not in diabetes mellitus patients. Nondiabetes mellitus patients with a time-weighted glucose concentration (Glu Tw) between 8.0 and 10.0 mmol/L were found to be 1.74 times more likely to …