Blood glucose monitoring

Abstract

The availability of blood glucose monitoring devices for home use has significantly impacted the treatment of diabetes with the American Diabetes Association currently recommending that Type 1 insulin-dependent diabetic individuals perform blood glucose testing four times per day. Grave health issues are associated with high and low blood glucose levels. Injection of too much insulin without enough food lowers blood sugar into the hypoglycemic range, glucose below 60 mg/dL, resulting in mild confusion or in more severe cases loss of consciousness, seizure, and coma. On the other hand, long-term high blood sugar levels lead to diabetic complications such as eye, kidney, heart, nerve, or blood vessel disease (Diabetes Control and Complications Trial Research Group 1993). Complications were tracked in a large clinical study showing that an additional 5 years of life, 8 years of sight, 6 years free from kidney disease, and 6 years free of amputations can be expected for a diabetic following tight glucose control versus the standard regimen (Diabetes Control and Complications Trial Research Group 1996).