The most commonly used blood sugar monitoring method in clinical practice is still the blood glucose meter that measures fingertip blood. In addition, the most used ones are continuous glucose monitoring, glycated hemoglobin monitoring and saccharified albumin monitoring. For different groups of people, different monitoring methods and different monitoring times can be selected.
When is the most accurate time to measure blood sugar?
Let’s first talk about the most used fingertip blood. The blood glucose meter that people usually use at home is also of this type. If it is only lifestyle intervention, that is, these diabetes patients who are treated with diet control and exercise only, the main purpose of using a fingertip blood glucose meter is to evaluate whether our blood sugar control meets the standards, whether the control is very reasonable, and the time will not be strictly required, so just follow the doctor's instructions.
For diabetic patients treated with oral medication, monitoring of blood glucose meter can reflect blood glucose fluctuations. The monitoring time is generally 2-4 times a week fasting blood glucose and blood glucose two hours after meals. If possible, you can find a day within a week to do both fasting and post-meal blood sugar monitoring, which can more comprehensively reflect the blood sugar fluctuations this week.
For patients who are injected with insulin, monitoring of blood sugar is also very necessary. For different patients who use insulin , the monitoring method and time point are also different. For example, for patients who take basal insulin, that is, long-acting insulin, the main monitoring time of is the fasting blood sugar , because basal insulin mainly controls blood sugar when on the fasting and not having a meal.
For patients who inject premixed insulin, in addition to monitoring fasting blood sugar, they also need to monitor blood sugar for two hours after breakfast and blood sugar for two hours after dinner. Because premixed insulin injections mainly cover the blood sugar on the fasting and after-meal. Therefore, when adjusting the insulin dose, the main points we observe are fasting blood sugar and blood sugar two hours after meals.
In addition, there are blood sugar monitoring for some special groups. For example, for elderly patients, patients who often suffer from severe hypoglycemia, patients in the perioperative period, patients in pregnancy, including patients with type 1 diabetes, individual monitoring time should be achieved based on the conditions for monitoring blood sugar.
Next, let’s take a brief look at the monitoring of glycated hemoglobin, which is not so extensively used. Glycated hemoglobin mainly reflects the average blood sugar level in the past three months. Its normal value is between 4% and 6%. For older people or with special circumstances, this indicator can be slightly relaxed to 6.5%. Its measurement time is generally monitored every 3 months. If the blood sugar control meets the standards, it can be monitored every 6 months.
Finally, glycated albumin may also be used in clinical practice to monitor blood sugar. This indicator mainly reflects the changes in blood sugar during 2-3 weeks. Its normal value is 11%-14%, mainly to monitor the patient's glycated albumin once every two or three weeks. In summary, it is the monitoring method and monitoring time of blood sugar that are often used in clinical practice. I hope it will help you.
