Open AccessA Review of Continuous Glucose Monitoring-Based Composite Metrics for Glycemic Control
Author(s) -
Michelle Nguyen,
Julia Han,
Elias K. Spanakis,
Boris Kovatchev,
David C. Klonoff
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
diabetes technology and therapeutics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.142
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1557-8593
pISSN - 1520-9156
DOI - 10.1089/dia.2019.0434
Subject(s) - glycemic , medicine , composite number , metric (unit) , continuous glucose monitoring , statistic , control (management) , diabetes mellitus , statistics , computer science , artificial intelligence , operations management , algorithm , mathematics , engineering , endocrinology
We performed a literature review of composite metrics for describing the quality of glycemic control, as measured by continuous glucose monitors (CGMs). Nine composite metrics that describe CGM data were identified. They are described in detail along with their advantages and disadvantages. The primary benefit to using composite metrics in clinical practice is to be able to quickly evaluate a patient's glycemic control in the form of a single number that accounts for multiple dimensions of glycemic control. Very little data exist about (1) how to select the optimal components of composite metrics for CGM; (2) how to best score individual components of composite metrics; and (3) how to correlate composite metric scores with empiric outcomes. Nevertheless, composite metrics are an attractive type of scoring system to present clinicians with a single number that accounts for many dimensions of their patients' glycemia. If a busy health care professional is looking for a single-number summary statistic to describe glucose levels monitored by a CGM, then a composite metric has many attractive features.