The present results demonstrate that in this heterogeneous population of critically ill patients in Western Europe, patients with a history of insulin-treated diabetes had similar mortality rates to those without, even though patients with a history of insulin-treated diabetes were more severely ill on admission to the ICU and were more likely to have or to develop renal failure and to require hemodialysis than patients with no history of insulin-treated diabetes. This evidence concerns the gene INS and diabetes mellitus.