Why is the Ambulatory Glucose Profile (AGP) an important tool when assessing glucose?
AGP is a visual snapshot of a patient’s typical day using dense glucose data revealing hypoglycaemic and hyperglycaemic trends behind A1c results to facilitate better patient therapy and interaction. Glucose variability in addition to A1c result may be a more reliable indicator of glycemic control than A1c alone. AGP goes beyond A1c by revealing hypoglycaemia, hyperglycaemia and glucose variability. The most important identified aspect of AGP is that it reveals glucose variability, post-prandial glucose excursions and hypoglycemic trends. High glucose variability can lead to increased risk for hypoglycaemia.1 This is because efforts to control the highs can result in dangerous lows at the other side of the range. AGP reveals glucose variability by 2 measures. The distance between the 5th and 95th percentile curves shows how widely glucose readings have varied at that time of the day. A median curve that rises and falls shows glucose instability across the day.
Reference
1. Hirsch IB, Brownlee M. Should minimal blood glucose variability become the gold standard of glycemic control?. Journal of Diabetes and its Complications. 2005;19(3):178-81.