Exploration of Continuous Glucose Monitoring on the Intensive Care Unit

Hyperglycemia is present in up to 50% of patients admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) and is strongly associated with elevated morbidity and mortality rates. Therefore, it is important to monitor glucose levels closely. In the ICU, glucose monitoring primarily relies on periodic measurements through point-of-care (POC) meters, which involve invasive blood sampling from venous or arterial lines. To maintain blood glucose concentrations within acceptable ranges, a possible improvement is continuous glucose monitoring (CGM), which is now used to manage glucose levels in diabetic patients in general settings and has shown significant benefits. Studies on the use of CGM in the ICU setting are limited. If CGM reliably measures glucose levels in critically ill patients, it enables earlier intervention and might help to predict hypo- or hyperglycemia based on measurement trends.

Objective: To investigate the discrepancy between CGM and POC measurements in insulin-dependent ICU patients and to study whether these potential discrepancies between CGM and POC vary across patient-related factors, like gender, age, comorbidities, medication use, disease severity scores, treatment in ICU.

Study design: Prospective, multi-centre, single-arm intervention, exploratory study

Intervention: All study participants receive one CGM sensor to monitor glucose levels. A second CGM sensor will only be applied if the first CGM sensor needed to be replaced within 8 days after insertion. The measurements will be blinded to all except the research team.