A retrospective analysis of the correlation between the glucose-to-albumin ratio and 28-day mortality in sepsis patients

Background The Glucose to Albumin Ratio (GAR) is considered a novel biomarker for predicting the risk of mortality following intracerebral hemorrhage. Despite the absence of existing research examining the association between the GAR and mortality in sepsis, this study is designed to delineate the relationship between the GAR and the risk of all-cause mortality within a 28-day period in patients diagnosed with sepsis. Methods This study is a retrospective cohort study, primarily based on data from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC, version 2.2). This study targeted the circumstances of adult sepsis patients admitted to intensive care units. The primary investigation was centered on the correlation between the GAR and the mortality from all causes within a 28-day period post-admission for sepsis. Results This study included a total of 6731 patients with sepsis, with an all-cause mortality rate of 24.7% within 28 days after admission. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that, after adjusting for all confounding factors, the GAR is an independent risk factor for 28-day all-cause mortality in sepsis patients (HR:1.11, 95% CI: 1.04-1.19). Curve fitting revealed a J-shaped relationship between GAR and 28-day mortality rates in sepsis patients, and further analysis of the inflection point showed a critical value of GAR at 27.93. Finally, subgroup analysis indicated no interaction effect of GAR across different subgroups (P > 0.05). Conclusion The GAR is significantly correlated with the all-cause mortality rate within 28 days for patients with sepsis, a finding that holds substantial clinical significance. Therefore, prospective studies are needed in the future to further validate this relationship.