Generating and interpreting blood glucose profiles in diabetic dogs and cats: new opportunities by 24-hour-monitoring

Establishing adequate glycemic control in diabetic dogs and cats with insulin is difficult. Usually, serial blood glucose concentration curves based on a number of blood glucose measurements are used to adjust insulin therapy. However, glycemic excursions such as nightly hypoglycemia are often not recognized by this method. For this reason, the use and reliability of continuous glucose measurement with the Continuous Glucose Monitoring System (CGMS)(R) by MiniMed was tested at the Small Animal Clinic of the School of Veterinary Medicine Hannover. Monitoring was completed without any difficulties in 14 of 16 measurements. Nightly hypoglycemia or glucose values < 100 mg/dl were detected in five glucose profiles. The CGMS(R) proved to be useful in dogs and cats in this first clinical evaluation. Further studies are desirable to analyze practical uses of this new monitoring technique.