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VIDEO: CGM allows assessment of glucose variability
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NEW ORLEANS — In this video exclusive, Paul Jellinger, MD, an endocrinologist at Memorial Regional Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and professor of clinical medicine at the University of Miami, outlines the design of a study using continuous glucose monitoring in patients with type 2 diabetes to assess glucose fluctuations and explains why reducing glucose variability is clinically desirable.
Study participants were randomly assigned to Bydureon (exenatide, AstraZeneca; n = 61) or placebo (n = 56) for 10 weeks, preceded by a 4-week run-in period. During the final run-in week and treatment weeks 4 and 7, CGM recorded glucose levels every 5 minutes. Researchers found significant post-meal glucose variability in the placebo group and a robust reduction in fluctuation in the exenatide group, according to Jellinger.
“When using the CGM, we can detect excursions in blood sugar that we never imagined were there before because we usually don’t look for that in the course of treating patients,” Jellinger said.