ESPE Abstracts

Background: Several studies show there may be a relationship between the use of continuous glucose monitoring systems (CGMS) and improved glycaemic control in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (t1dm).

Objective and hypotheses: The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a significant correlation between the clinical (office based) use of short-term CGMS and improvement in glycaemic control in paediatric patients with t1dm.

Method: Retrospective chart review of 28 t1dm patients that were non-randomly chosen to use the short-term CGMS (ages 5–18 years, 17 males and 11 females) in a paediatric diabetes clinic. Reasons to recommend the CGMS were: hyperglycaemia (7), hypoglycaemia (4), glucose fluctuations (8), sports-related (4), to improve control (4), insurance request (1). The variables investigated in this study were: haemoglobin A1c (HgA1c) before and after the use of the CGMS, age and gender.

Results: The average HgA1c pre-CGMS was 9.17%, and in the follow up visit (average time between visits was 94.5 days) was 8.70%. Differences in HgA1c between pre and post-CGMS vistis were not statistically significant (P=0.10).

Conclusion: While HgA1c was lower after short-term CGMS in paediatric patients with t1dm, the difference was not statistically significant. This may be due to the small number of patients in our study.