Identifying Diabetes and Impaired Glucose Tolerance in ICU Patients

In the Netherlands, patients admitted to the ICU are classified as having diabetes based on whether their medical records indicate glucose management medication use (Dutch National Intensive Care Evaluation (NICE) Registry). However, this approach does not identify patients with 1) undiagnosed diabetes, 2) uncontrolled diabetes, 3) patients managing their condition through lifestyle modifications, or 4) individuals with prediabetes, which is considered an early stage of diabetes. Consequently, this may lead to an underestimation of the "true" prevalence of chronic dysglycaemia among ICU patients and as a result the impact of various glycaemic states on acute outcomes remain underexplored.