People who attend Emergency Departments (EDs) with acute heart failure should have their blood sugar levels checked immediately, as this could identify if they are at risk of further health problems or even death, a new study has found.

Heart failure is a potentially life-threatening condition which leads to the heart being unable to pump enough blood around the body. Symptoms include tiredness, shortness of breath, dizziness and swollen ankles and around 10,000 new cases are diagnosed in Ireland every year.

Canadian researchers looked at over 16,500 people who attended EDs with acute heart failure between 2004 and 2007. All were aged between 70 and 85 and just over half did not have diabetes.

The study found that even if a patient had never been diagnosed with diabetes and had blood sugar levels that could be considered ‘normal', if these levels were above 6.1mmol/L, they had an increased risk of developing diabetes and dying early.

In fact, if a patient who never had diabetes was found to have blood glucose levels of between 6.1 and 7.8mmol/L, their risk of death within 30 days from any cause was 26% higher than their peers with lower blood sugar levels.

Their risk of death from heart-related causes was 28% higher.

Meanwhile, if their blood sugar levels were greater than 11.1mmol/L, their risk of death from all causes jumped to 50%, while their risk of heart-related death jumped to 64% if their levels were between 9.4 and 11.1mmol/L.

The study also found that the higher their blood sugar levels, the higher their risk of developing diabetes. If their levels exceeded 11.1mmol/L, their risk of developing diabetes increased by a massive 261%.

"Among patients without pre-existing diabetes, the majority (51%) had blood glucose levels on arrival at hospital that were within ‘normal' limits but greater than 6.1mmol/L. Our results suggest that all such patients should undergo further testing for diabetes before discharge.

"If the hospital tests show that their fasting blood glucose is not elevated, then they should be monitored subsequently for the development of diabetes as outpatients," commented lead researcher, Dr Douglas Lee, of the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences.

He noted that while it is already known that diabetes is a risk factor for developing heart failure, ‘this is the first time that it has been shown that heart failure predisposes people to developing diabetes'.

Dr Lee emphasised that checking blood sugar levels is a simple and inexpensive measure, yet it has the potential to identify patients at risk.

"Our findings suggest that the measurement of blood sugar levels in all patients arriving at EDs with acute heart failure could provide doctors with useful prognostic information and could help to improve outcomes in these patients.

"It is a rapid, readily available and inexpensive test that could be used to enable doctors to quickly assess a patient's risk for a wide range of possible outcomes and to suggest appropriate screening strategies that should be put in place," he added.

Details of these findings are published in the European Heart Journal.