Diabetes technology & therapeutics
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Diabetes Technol. Ther. · Jun 2004
Experience with the continuous glucose monitoring system in a medical intensive care unit.
Strict glycemic control improves clinical outcomes in critically ill patients. However, practical tools for frequent monitoring of blood glucose (BG) levels in the intensive care unit (ICU) are limited. The Continuous Glucose Monitoring System (CGMS, Medtronic MiniMed, Northridge, CA) is currently approved for detecting glycemic excursions in outpatients with diabetes mellitus. ⋯ The CGMS is promising for potential use in critically ill patients. If validated in larger studies, the device could serve as a useful research tool for investigating the role of hyperglycemia (and strict glycemic control) in ICU patients. If further developed as a "real-time" glucose sensor, CGMS technology could ultimately prove clinically useful in the ICU, by decreasing nursing workload and/or by providing alarm signals for impending glycemic excursions.