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Case Reports
. 2008 Nov;31(11):2110-2.
doi: 10.2337/dc08-0863. Epub 2008 Aug 11.

Duration of nocturnal hypoglycemia before seizures

Bruce Buckingham  1 , Darrell M Wilson, Todd Lecher, Ragnar Hanas, Kevin Kaiserman, Fergus Cameron
Affiliations
Case Reports

Duration of nocturnal hypoglycemia before seizures

Bruce Buckingham et al. Diabetes Care. 2008 Nov.

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 is wearing a CGM device.

Research design and methods: In this article, we describe four such cases and 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 2.25-4 h before seizure activity.

Conclusions: Even with a subcutaneous glucose lag of 18 min 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.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Case 1: 15-year-old male wearing an original Minimed CGMS. Case 2: 12-year-old female wearing a Minimed CGMS-Gold monitor. Case 3: 16-year-old female wearing the original Minimed CGMS. Case 4: 17-year-old female wearing a MiniMed 722 Paradigm real-time continuous glucose monitor. Alarm “bell” along time axis at bottom of graph indicates alarming (vibratory and then audio). BG, blood glucose.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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