Frequency of hyperglycemic stress in patients referred to emergency department of Akbar hospital in Mashhad depending on type of disease

Background: Hyperglycemic stress is a transient increase in blood glucose during an acute physiological stress in the absence of diabetes. In children, blood glucose level of >150 mg/dl is considered as hyperglycemia. The aim of the study was determining the Frequency of hyperglycemic stress based on the underlying diseases in patients referred to emergency department of one pediatric hospital in Mashhad-Iran.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, patients referred to the pediatric emergency department of Akbar Hospital without receiving any medication or serum containing glucose were evaluated. Information of the patients such as age, sex, blood glucose level, vital signs, body temperature, initial diagnosis and the type of disease, seizures, dehydration, and treatment received for hyperglycemia were recorded. Body temperature, dehydration and seizures were also re-evaluated 48 hours after admission. Chi-square test was used to compare the qualitative variables. For quantitative statistical analysis, after examining the normality of the variables by Smirnov Kolmogorov tests, Pearson correlation test and its nonparametric equivalent were used in case of normal and non-normal distribution of data, respectively.Results: In this study, 201 patients including 120 boys (59.7%) and 81 girls (40.3%) with mean age of 3.01 ± 3.03 years (age range 2 months to 15 years) were enrolled. Findings showed that type of disease has no correlation with hyperglycemia, but temperature and dehydration are directly associated with hyperglycemia. Also, no connection was found between convulsion and the risk of increased glucose level, Conclusion: The severity of disease, high body temperature and dehydration rate are important risk factors in the rate and severity of hyperglycemia.