Clinical Implications of Real-time and Intermittently Scanned Continuous Glucose Monitoring

Source: Diabetes Care

Key Takeaways: CGM has emerged as a new standard of care for individuals with insulin-treated diabetes. Two types of CGM systems are now available: real-time CGM (rtCGM) and intermittently scanned (isCGM). rtCGM systems automatically transmit a continuous stream of glucose data to the user, provide alerts and active alarms, and transmit glucose data in real time to a smart phone and/or other display device. The current isCGM system provides the same type of data but requires the user to purposely scan the sensor to obtain information, and it does not have alerts and alarms. Both CGM technologies have significant advantages over self-monitoring of blood glucose; however, differences in the features and capabilities of the two approaches must be considered when guiding patient selection of the system that meets their individual needs.