Duration of Nocturnal Hypoglycemia Prior to Seizures
- Bruce Buckingham, MD (buckingham{at}stanford.edu)1,
- Darrell M. Wilson, MD (dwilson{at}stanford.edu)1,
- Todd Lecher, MPH2,
- Ragnar Hanas, M.D., Ph.D.3,
- Kevin Kaiserman, M.D.4 and
- Fergus Cameron, M.D.5
- 1Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford - Pediatric Endocrinology; 300 Pasteur Dr. S302 MC 5208 Stanford California 94305
- 2St. George University, Grenada, West Indies
- 3Pediatrics, Uddevalla Hospital, S-451 80 Uddevalla, Sweden
- 41401 W. Merced Ave. #103, West Covina, CA 91790
- 5Royal Children's Hospital, Flemington Rd, Parkville, Australia 3052
Abstract
Objective: Despite a high incidence of nocturnal hypoglycemia documented by the use of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM), there are no reports in the literature of nocturnal hypoglycemic seizures while a patient was wearing a CGM.
Methods: In this paper we describe four such cases, and we assess the duration of nocturnal hypoglycemia before the seizure.
Results: In the cases where patients had a nocturnal hypoglycemic seizure while wearing a CGM device, sensor hypoglycemia (< 60 mg/dl) was documented on the CGM record for 2.25 to 4 hours prior to seizure activity.
Conclusion: Even with a subcutaneous glucose lag of 18 minutes when compared with blood glucose measurements, glucose sensors have time to provide clinically meaningful alarms. Current nocturnal hypoglycemic alarms need to be improved, however, since patients can sleep through the current alarm systems.
Footnotes
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- Received May 7, 2008.
- Accepted July 31, 2008.
- Copyright © American Diabetes Association
