Impact of home blood glucose monitoring on childhood diabetes.

Ninety diabetic children each provided at least one 24-hour blood glucose profile at home using an impregnated filter paper strip. The mean 24-hour blood glucose level correlated significantly with urine control, height velocity, and Hb A1. The correlation coefficient for individual blood glucose values (r = 0.61) and for mean 24-hour blood glucose values (r = 0.73) repeated within 14 days showed an acceptable degree of reproducibility for the blood glucose profiles. Mean 24-hour blood glucose values fell significantly overall (11.4 to 9.8 mmol/l; 205 to 176 mg/100 ml) in 47 children who had repeated profiles more than 2 weeks apart. Unrecognised nocturnal hypoglycaemia (less than 3.0 mmol/l; 54 mg/100 ml) was found in 19% of children on twice-daily Semitard insulin. The study shows that children over age 7 years manage home blood glucose monitoring without difficulty. It shows that the results are reproducible and correlate with other indices of control, and that it provides a practical basis for the improvement of diabetic control.