Background: Glycemic control in hospital intensive care units (ICU) has been the subject of numerous research publications and debate over the past 2 decades. There have been multiple studies showing the benefit of ICU glucose control in reducing both morbidity and mortality. GlySure Ltd has developed a glucose monitor based on a diboronic acid receptor that can continuously measure plasma glucose concentrations directly in a patient’s vascular system. The goal of this study was to validate the performance of the GlySure CIGM system in different patient populations. Methods: The GlySure Continuous Intravascular Glucose Monitoring (CIGM) System was evaluated in both the Cardiac ICU (33 patients) and MICU setting (14 patients). The sensor was placed through a custom CVC and measured the patients’ blood glucose concentration every 15 seconds. Comparison blood samples were taken at 2 hourly then 4 hourly intervals and measured on a YSI 2300 STAT Plus or an i-STAT. Results: Consensus error grid analysis of the data shows that the majority of the data (88.2% Cardiac, and 95.0% MICU) fell within zone A, which is considered to be clinically accurate and all data points fell within zones A and B. The MARD of the Cardiac trial was 9.90% and the MICU trial had a MARD of 7.95%. Data analysis showed no significant differences between data generated from Cardiac and MICU patients or by time or glucose concentration. Conclusions: The GlySure CIGM System has met the design challenges of measuring intravascular glucose concentrations in critically ill patients with acceptable safety and performance criteria and without disrupting current clinical practice. The accuracy of the data is not affected by the patients’ condition.

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SUMMARY Volume therapy and maintenance of stable hemodynamics is crucial in children undergoing cardiac surgery on cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). The clinical use of hydroxyethyl starch (HES) 130/0.4 is limited by the possibility of adverse hemostatic effects which could potentially increase the risk of perioperative bleeding and transfusion requirements. We conducted this study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of HES in comparison with modified succinylated gelatin (MSG). Forty‐nine children were randomly assigned to receive either HES (n = 28) or MSG (n = 21) during the pre‐bypass period. Coagulation was assessed with thromboelastography (TEG) and the transfusion requirements up to the first postoperative day were documented. Both groups were comparable with respect to age, weight, CPB duration as well as hematological and biochemical laboratory investigations. TEG parameters were not deranged up to the first postoperative period in either group and there was a trend of reduced blood loss and transfusion requirements in HES groups although there was no statistically significant difference. Our study shows that HES 130/0.4 is safe and effective for volume replacement in pediatric cardiac surgery patients.

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