ROSARIO, Argentina, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- GIK infusion -- glucose, insulin and potassium given after heart attacks -- may increase heart failure risk, Argentinian and U.S. researchers found.
While small studies have supported GIK infusion and a larger study concluded a neutral effect, the Journal of American Medical Association reports on a new study that finds that GIK infusion may increase the risk of heart failure and death in the first three days for some cardiac patients.
The study, conducted by Dr. Rafael Diaz, of the Etudios Cardiologica Latin America, in Rosario, Argentina, and Dr. Abhinav Goyal, of the Emory School of Medicine in Atlanta, is an analysis of the outcomes of a GIK randomized controlled trial of 2,748 patients with a certain electrocardiogram pattern and 22,943 cardiac patients.
GIK infusion has no effect on any important clinical end point through 30 days following the heart attack and the study found a higher rate of death in patients given GIK therapy compared with those that did not receive GIK therapy.
