continuous glucose monitoring

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http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/512982?src=mp

Part of the article: (good for type 1 would be good for type 2)

Sept. 16, 2005 (Athens) — Continuous glucose monitoring may dramatically

improve day-to-day management of patients with diabetes, according to

data presented here this week at the European Association for the Study

of Diabetes 41st annual meeting.

In the GuardControl study, a European multicenter, randomized controlled

trial of 162 patients with type 1 diabetes, the group that wore the

continuous monitor throughout the trial achieved a substantial decrease

in A1C of 1.1 points compared with a 0.4-point reduction for the placebo

group. A third group that wore the device intermittently saw a decline in

A1C of 0.7 points.

Further, patients in the continuous-monitoring group had meaningful

decreases in excursions in glucose below 70 and over 190, yielding

significantly less glycemic instability and fewer " swings. " Such

variability sometimes results in unexpected, costly visits to the

emergency room to treat severe hypoglcyemia and diabetic ketoacidosis. In

particular, results showed that both the number of hypoglycemic events as

well as the duration of events were significantly reduced.

" The therapeutic value of accurate, real-time, continuous sensors is

immense, " said Dorthee Deiss, MD, a diabetologist at the Charité clinic

in Berlin, Germany, and a coinvestigator of the GuardControl trial. " This

technology will facilitate better self-management — more actionable,

independent, management. The power of this is considerable, as are the

public health implications. "