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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. Feb 15, 2015; 6(1): 17-29
Published online Feb 15, 2015. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v6.i1.17
Utility of different glycemic control metrics for optimizing management of diabetes
Klaus-Dieter Kohnert, Peter Heinke, Lutz Vogt, Eckhard Salzsieder
Klaus-Dieter Kohnert, Peter Heinke, Eckhard Salzsieder, Institute of Diabetes “Gerhardt Katsch”, D-17495 Karlsburg, Germany
Lutz Vogt, Diabetes Service Center, D-17495 Karlsburg, Germany
Author contributions: Kohnert KD drafted the manuscript, contributed to revision of the manuscript for intellectual content and approval of the manuscript; Heinke P contributed to analysis and interpretation of data; Vogt L contributed to interpretation of data and revision of the manuscript for intellectual content; Salzsieder E is the guarantor of this work and, as such, takes responsibility for its integrity and accuracy.
Conflict-of-interest: All authors declare no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Klaus-Dieter Kohnert, MD, PhD, Institute of Diabetes “Gerhardt Katsch”, Greifswalder Str. 11a, D-17495 Karlsburg, Germany. kohnert@diabetes-karlsburg.de
Telephone: +49-383-5568406 Fax: +49-383-5568444
Received: August 26, 2014
Peer-review started: August 28, 2014
First decision: September 19, 2014
Revised: September 26, 2014
Accepted: December 1, 2014
Article in press: December 1, 2014
Published online: February 15, 2015
Processing time: 197 Days and 1.2 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Hemoglobin A1c is the gold standard to assess glycemic control and a surrogate for diabetes-associated complications. Self-monitoring of blood glucose complements daily diabetes management but is insufficient in providing complete information on short-term changes in glucose levels induced by effects of food or antidiabetic medication. Key metrics beyond HbA1c are needed for glycemic control on a day-to-day basis as well as more advanced monitoring methods. Herein, we will review advantages and limitations of different metrics for glycemic control as well as possibilities for characterization of glucose dynamics with the special focus on glycemic variability and continuous glucose monitoring.