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01-06-2008 | For Debate

Insulin therapy in the intensive care unit should be targeted to maintain blood glucose between 4.4 mmol/l and 6.1 mmol/l

Author: G. Van den Berghe

Published in: Diabetologia | Issue 6/2008

Excerpt

Hyperglycaemia has been repeatedly associated with risk of mortality and morbidity in the intensive care unit (ICU). However, establishing a causal relationship between hyperglycaemia and adverse outcome requires randomised controlled trials assessing the impact of treating/preventing hyperglycaemia in this condition. The only two randomised controlled studies that have addressed this question so far targeted normoglycaemia (4.4–6.1 mmol/l) in ICUs and showed that the link indeed appears causal. The evidence currently available is thus in favour of a ‘normal ≤6.1 mmol/l’ level for blood glucose control in ICUs and is not supportive of J. Miles’s viewpoint in this debate [1], as studies on any other level have not been performed. …

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Title: Insulin therapy in the intensive care unit should be targeted to maintain blood glucose between 4.4 mmol/l and 6.1 mmol/l
Author: G. Van den Berghe
Publication date: 01-06-2008
Publisher: Springer-Verlag
Published in: Diabetologia / Issue 6/2008
Print ISSN: 0012-186X
Electronic ISSN: 1432-0428
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-007-0878-7

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