Associations of variability in blood glucose and systolic blood pressure with mortality in patients with coronary artery disease: A retrospective cohort study from the MIMIC-IV database

Variability scoring system and mortality. [Display omitted] •Whether GV and SBPV have additive effects on mortality in ICU patients is unclear.•High GV and high SBPV were associated with an increased risk of mortality.•The effects of GV and SBPV on in-hospital mortality were partially mediated by ventricular arrhythmias.•The risk of mortality increases with the number of high-variability parameters.•The risk of mortality increases with increasing variability scores. Variability of metabolic parameters, such as glycemic variability (GV) and systolic blood pressure variability (SBPV), are associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes. However, whether these parameters have additive effects on mortality in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) hospitalized in the intensive care unit (ICU) remains unclear. We retrospectively enrolled patients with CAD from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care-IV database. The highest tertile of variability was defined as high variability. A variability scoring system was established, which assigned 0 points to tertile 1, 1 point to tertile 2, and 2 points to tertile 3 for GV and SBPV. Among 4237 patients with CAD, 400 patients died in hospital, and 967 patients died during 1-year follow-up. High GV and high SBPV were associated with an increased risk of mortality. The effects of GV and SBPV on in-hospital mortality were partially mediated by ventricular arrhythmias (18.0 % and 6.6 %, respectively). The risk of mortality gradually increased with the number of high-variability parameters and increasing variability scores. GV and SBPV have additive effects on the risk of mortality in patients with CAD hospitalized in the ICU. Ventricular arrhythmias partially mediate the effects of GV and SBPV on in-hospital mortality.