Elevated level of urea is a good predictor for 30-day all-cause mortality in acutely admitted medical patients

OBJECTIVE To assess the correlation between urea and mortality in acutely ill medical patients admitted to hospital. METHODS We included consecutively admitted adult patients from the medical admission unit at a regional Danish hospital. Data on mortality was extracted. The association with 30-day mortality was described using cubic splines, and discriminatory power, crude association and adjusted analyses were performed. RESULTS We included 5,894 patients, with a 30-day mortality of 5.6%. We found a dose-response relation between urea and 30-day mortality with an increase from 2.7% to 19.5% (p<0.001). CONCLUSION Elevated urea is strongly associated with 30-day all-cause mortality in acutely admitted medical patients with acceptable discrimination and good calibration.