Critical Care

official impact factor 4.60

Letter

Hourly measurements not required for safe and effective glycemic control in the critically ill patient

Miriam Hoekstra1*, Mathijs Vogelzang2, Evgeny Verbitskiy3,4 and Maarten W Nijsten5

Author Affiliations

1 Department of Anesthesiology and Department of Cardiology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, 9700 RB Groningen, the Netherlands

2 Department of Cardiology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, 9700 RB Groningen, the Netherlands

3 Department of Dynamical Systems and Mathematical Physics, Research Institute for Mathematics and Computing Science, University of Groningen, 9700 AK Groningen, the Netherlands

4 Department of Information and System Security, Philips Research, 5621 BA Eindhoven, the Netherlands

5 Department of Critical Care, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, 9700 RB Groningen, the Netherlands

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Critical Care 2010, 14:404 doi:10.1186/cc8190

Published: 8 February 2010

First paragraph (this article has no abstract)

In the recently published work of Juneja and colleagues the authors describe the excellent results of a computerized insulin dosing algorithm (Clarian GlucoStabilizer™) [1]. To prevent hypoglycemia, however, the authors note that frequent (that is, hourly) measurements are required. We believe that, with an adequate algorithm, the required level of glucose control can be reached without hourly glucose measurements.