Paolo Palatini - Clinica Medica IV University of Padova Italy; Giuseppe Berton - Conegliano General Hospital Department of Cardiology Conegliano Italy

In the  recently  published  study  byKragelundet  al.,1 fasting insulin, bloodglucose,  HbA1c,  and  microalbuminuria were measured in a large sample of non-diabetic patients with acute myocardialinfarction (AMI) between the second andthe fifth day after admission. All the above  markers  were  associated  with global mortality after 7 years of followup  at  univariable  analyses,  but  only insulin level remained an independent predictor of outcome at multivariable analysis. We believe that the predictive power  of  albumin  excretion  (AE)  has been overlooked by the authors owing to a  series  of  methodological  problems.

European Heart Journal (2005) 26, 1242–1244