Free style optium blood glucose and ketone monitoring system

The Free-style Optium Blood Glucose and Ketone Monitoring System (Abbott Diabetes Care Ltd., Oxon, UK) was used to determine the BHBA level in blood. The glucose and NEFAs levels in the blood were measured by available kits (Jian-Cheng Bioengineering Institute, Nanjing, China) following the manufacturer’s instructions.

According to the guidelines of the American Diabetes Association [18 (link)], the target blood glucose range for critically ill patients was 7.8–10.0 mmol/L (140–180 mg/dL) in our study. A standard blood glucose control goal and a uniform insulin infusion standard to maintain the blood glucose level within the target range were adopted. The nutrition therapy emphasized on early enteral nutrition, starting feeding within 48 h, and attempting to achieve sufficient nutritional support, in accordance with the recommendations of the ICU nutritional therapist, within 48–72 h [19 (link)].
Capillary blood glucose levels were used in this study. The glucose level was measured uniformly by nurses using a glucose meter (FreeStyle Optium Blood Glucose and Ketone Monitoring System, Abbott Diabetes Care, Oxon, UK). Glucose level measurements were made at least every 4 h after admission to the ICU and for no less than 6 times per day.