The Correlation and Accuracy of Glucose Levels between Interstitial Fluid and Venous Plasma by Continuous Glucose Monitoring System

BACKGROUND: Clinical experience with the continuous glucose monitoring systems (CGMS) is limited in Korea. The objective of this study is to evaluate the accuracy of the CGMS and the correlation between interstitial fluid and venous plasma glucose level in Korean healthy male subjects. METHODS: Thirty-two subjects were served with glucose solution contained same amount of test food's carbohydrate and test foods after separate overnight fasts. CGMS was performed over 3 days during hopitalization for each subjects. Venous plasma glucose measurements were carried out during 4 hours (0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1, 2, 4 hours) just before and after glucose solution and test food load. The performance of the CGMS was evaluated by comparing its readings to those obtained at the same time by the hexokinase method using the auto biochemistry machine (Hitachi 7600-110). Also, correlations between glucose recorded with CGMS and venous plasma glucose value were examined. RESULTS: CGMS slightly underestimated the glucose value as compared with the venous plasma glucose level (16.3 ± 22.2 mg/dL). Correlation between CGMS and venous plasma glucose values throughout sensor lifetime is 0.73 (regression analysis: slope = 1.08, intercept = 8.38 mg/dL). Sensor sensitivity can deteriorate over time, with correlations between venous blood glucose and CGMS values dropping from 0.77 during 1st day to 0.65 during 2nd and 3rd day. CONCLUSION: The accuracy of data provided by CGMS may be less than expected. CGMS sensor sensitivity is decreased with the passage of time. But, from this study, CGMS can be used for glucose variability tendency monitoring conveniently to the Korean.