Blood Glucose Control in the Intensive Care Unit: Differentiated Values for People With and Without Diabetes are Useful
Differentiating between people with and without diabetes can be useful for controlling and monitoring blood glucose levels in patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). This is the argument made by authors Andreas Birkenfeld, speaker of the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD) and Medical Director of the Clinic for Diabetology, Endocrinology and Nephrology at Tübingen University Hospital, and Christian von Loeffelholz, Jena University Hospital, in an opinion piece in the specialist magazine ‘Lancet D&E’. They highlight the importance of individualized therapy regimens for ICU patients with diabetes but also point out the need for further detailed data and studies.
The authors highlight the importance of individualized therapy regimens for ICU patients with diabetes, as individual risk profiles and blood glucose tolerances can vary.
They also emphasize the need for further research to determine which subgroups of patients could benefit from stricter blood glucose target ranges. It is also important to further investigate sex differences in the blood glucose target ranges of patients in the ICU as well as the possible effects of the female menstrual cycle on blood sugar values.
