"Continuous Glucose Monitoring 'Short-term and Intermittent' Use Also Effective for Type 2 Diabetes Treatment"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Young-won] A study has found that short-term intermittent continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) also has a beneficial effect on diabetes control treatment in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Kangbuk Samsung Hospital announced that a research team led by Professors Park Cheol-young and Moon Seon-jun from the Department of Endocrinology at Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Kim Kyung-soo from Bundang CHA Hospital, and Lee Woo-je from Seoul Asan Hospital analyzed 61 patients aged between 30 and 65 with type 2 diabetes who visited Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Bundang CHA Hospital, and Seoul Asan Hospital from March 2020 to November 2021, and found these results.

Patients with type 2 diabetes often have a high psychological resistance to insulin therapy, making it difficult to start insulin treatment easily. Additionally, there is a lack of research evaluating the effectiveness of short-term real-time continuous glucose monitoring use in type 2 diabetes patients who are not undergoing insulin therapy.

The research team randomly divided the patients into three groups: ▲using real-time continuous glucose monitoring for one week ▲using real-time continuous glucose monitoring for one week, then using it again for one week after three months ▲and managing without continuous glucose monitoring.

As a result, three months after treatment, group 1 showed a 0.6% decrease in glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) compared to the other groups, and group 2 showed a 0.64% decrease compared to group 3, indicating a significant reduction in HbA1c.

However, six months after treatment, only group 2, which used real-time continuous glucose monitoring twice at three-month intervals, showed a 0.68% decrease in HbA1c.

In particular, when analyzing the results of subjects who measured their blood glucose more than 1.5 times per day among those who underwent real-time continuous glucose monitoring, both group 2 and group 1 showed significant decreases in HbA1c at both three and six months. Subjects who measured their blood glucose less than 1.5 times per day did not show a significant reduction in HbA1c.

Professor Moon Seon-jun of the Department of Endocrinology at Kangbuk Samsung Hospital stated, "This study demonstrated that patients with type 2 diabetes not controlled by oral medication can benefit from a reduction in HbA1c even if they use short-term real-time continuous glucose monitoring only about once every three months." He added, "This suggests the possibility that it can be used as an alternative blood glucose management method to starting insulin therapy for these patients."

Meanwhile, this study was published in the international academic journal 'Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism.'

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.