Patient-Level Glucose Monitoring: Meters and Continuous Glucose Monitoring

Release Date: Mar 2019

Nicholas B. Argento, MD

Diabetes Technology Director, Maryland Endocrine and Diabetes Center, Columbia, MD

Learning Objectives:

After completing this course, participants will be able to:

• Appreciate the limitations of current home glucose monitors.
• Understand how continuous glucose monitors (CGM) function, and the differences between intermittently scanned and real-time CGMs.
• Understand the clinical application of CGMs in modern diabetes care.

Who should attend? Practicing Pathologists, Residents, Doctoral Scientists, Laboratory Managers, Phlebotomists, Students

Description:

Home blood glucose monitoring has been in widespread clinical use since the early 1980s. Modern glucose meters provide clinically useful information to clinicians and patients, but are limited by issues of limited sampling and debates about how to use the meters most effectively, and in which patient types. A brief review of current technology and recommendations by ADA-EASD and AACE will be provided. Traditionally, overall blood glucose control in both individuals and in populations has been assessed by measuring hemoglobin A1c, but the limits of A1c in individual patient-level decision-making must be appreciated. The first home continuous glucose monitors (CGM) were introduced as early as 2006, but only now are they becoming more widely used by clinicians and researchers, and available for patient-level use. Current technology of both intermittently scanned and real-time CGMs, recent clinical findings, and future directions with and without use of an insulin pump will be reviewed.