Medtronic launches first ever diabetes management system and real-time continuous glucose monitoring for improved diabetes management

The Paradigm® REAL-Time is a progressive therapy available for patients who use insulin to treat diabetes. It is the first integrated diabetes management system to display real-time continuous glucose readings and trend graphs, allowing patients to make more informed treatment decisions to improve their glucose control after confirming readings with a fingerstick measurement.

The Guardian® RT displays glucose readings every five minutes and alerts patients when glucose levels become too high or too low.

By seeing glucose values and hearing alarms, patients can intervene earlier to reduce the severity and duration of glucose fluctuations that can lead to diabetes-related complications, including coma, blindness, kidney failure, amputation, impotence and heart disease.

Both systems use a subcutaneous glucose sensor to record as many as 288 daily glucose readings - providing patients with nearly 100 times more information than three daily fingerstick readings provide.

Current standards for assessing glucose control include A1C tests and fingerstick measurements, yet both have limitations. An A1C test, which measures glucose control over a three-month period, is important for long-term management, but it is only an average and does not reveal day-to-day glucose fluctuations that can damage the body. In turn, fingerstick measurements only reveal a glucose value at a single moment in time. As a result, patients are unable to detect approximately 60 percent of low glucose (hypoglycemia) events and have difficulty assessing glucose fluctuations while they sleep. In contrast, real-time continuous glucose monitoring allows patients to view glucose trends throughout the day and night, and understand how fast, and in what direction, their glucose levels are heading. By discovering how diet, exercise, medication and lifestyle affect their glucose levels, patients can make more informed treatment decisions and achieve a greater sense of confidence when managing their disease.

"The management of diabetes is a delicate balance between BG values and treatment modalities. Real Time Glucose Sensing can be of great clinical value to Health Care Professionals and their patients providing better insight to reach ultimate treatment goals and tighter treatment satisfaction", states Prof. Sami Azar MD, FACP, Professor of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the American University of Beirut - Medical Center President, Lebanese Society of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Lipids.