The Role of Glucose, Insulin and Potassium Infusion in Treatment of High Risk Acute Coronary Syndrome

Background and In ischemic state some substrates are shifted to glucose leading to less oxygen consumption. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of glucose, insulin and potassium (GIK) infusion in patients with high risk acute coronary syndrome (ACS). A double-blind, pilot clinical trial was conducted in 41 high-risk ACS-NSTEMI-patients attending Emergency Department in the first 12h of showing symptoms. They were randomly assigned to receive either GIK (n=20) or conventional treatment (n=21). We recorded the patients’ demographic information, serum troponin level and Electrocardiogram (ECG) findings in admission and 24 hours later, and 30-day mortality rate. The mean age of patients was 61.46±12.13 years and there were 21 (51.2%) male. There was no significant difference between two groups in age, gender, history of underlying diseases and lab data (P>0.05). ECG changes showed improvements among 9 patients in GIK group (50%) and 7 patients in control group (33.3%) (P=0.55). The mean changes of troponin level in GIK and control groups were 1.01±2.03 and 1.87±4.40, respectively. The 30-day mortality rate was zero. This study showed no significant difference in efficacy of high dose GIK on ECG changes, serum troponin level and one-month mortality rate after treatment.