Hyperglycemia During Acute Coronary Syndrome: A Nurse-Managed Insulin Infusion Protocol for Stricter and Safer Control

Background: Diabetic patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) might benefit from tight glycemic control by means of insulin infusion. Nurse-implemented insulin infusion protocols (IIP) are available but none validated in patients with ACS admitted to a coronary care unit (CCU). Aims: To assess feasibility, effectiveness and safety of a new nurse-managed IIP (Desio Diabetes Diagram, DDD) for intensive glucose control in patients with suspected ACS and known diabetes or blood glucose (BG) > 200 mg/dL. Methods and results: To reach and maintain a target BG level of 100–139 mg/dL we adopted a nomogram based on the percent changes in the insulin infusion rate according to the current BG value and the percent change from previous BG level. Ninety-one consecutive patients (53 men, mean age 69.7 ± 11.2 years) were treated with DDD IIP. Baseline BG was 202.2 ± 86.8 mg/dL. The median time to achieve the target was 3 h (Q1–Q3 2–5 h). Afterwards target BG levels were maintained for 70.4 ± 15.9% of the time. During 5004 h of insulin infusion BG never fell below 40 mg/dL. Conclusions: The nurse-managed DDD IIP was easily implemented in our CCU and permitted strict and safe glycemic control in hyperglycemic patients with ACS.