CONTINUOUS GLUCOSE MONITORING USING THE GLUCODAY (R) SYSTEM, IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS WHO HAVE TYPE ONE DIABETES

At present times, Continuous Glucose Monitoring is a recommended method to detect glucemia fluctuations in patients who have diabetes, due to the fine correlation between interstitial glucose and capillary glucemia. The objective of this project is obtain a glucose register during a 48 hour period in a group of Type I diabetes patients who have an irregular metabolic control and to evaluate effectiveness of treatment employed, as well as evaluating compliance of the therapeutic norms established for each patient. At the same time, the authors plan to test the usefulness of a graphical register for diabetic education. After applying an anesthetic cream in the lateral umbilical zone, a subcutaneous catheter connected to a GLUCODAY (R), Menarini Diagnostics glucose sensor is inserted which, by means of a continuous sequence taking measures in interstitial liquid, registers a value every three minutes for as long as this connection is maintained. After a maximum 48 hour period, data are transferred to a computer and by means of the corresponding computer program, a graphic register for each patient is produced. Informed consent has been obtained from each patient. There were 23 patients in this study group, each diagnosed to have Type I diabetes; eight of these patients, two girls and six boys, were pre-puberty aged while 15, six girls and nine boys, were adolescents. Two of the pre-puberty patients had pathological antecedents, in one case celiac and the other thyroid disease. Two of the puberty aged patients had a history of chronic lymphocytic thyroid disease under opo-therapeutic treatment. Individual analysis of each case permits health professionals to detect a series of facts: it is difficult to comply with glucemic objectives in this group of adolescents having diabetes, with insulin treatment installed and researchers detect postprandial hyper-glucemia which do not appear when using capillary glucemias carried out by habitual methods. Study observations manifest a lack of compliance in indicated agreed upon schedules and researchers detect dietary transgressions. Continuous Glucose Monitoring makes it possible to obtain a graphic which can include those incidences which have occurred, facilitate commenting on the errors detected with adolescent patients and permit proposing a series of therapeutic modifications based on concrete, real data. Continuous Glucose Monitoring promises to be a useful tool to educate patients about diabetes.