When will US switch bG units from mg/dl to mM?
I hope soon.
Pros? millimolar is more logical, used in Europe and elsewhere, easier to work with, used in research labs everywhere at the bench-level, the publication standard in peer-reviewed material in biochemistry and related fields, and ultimately better than milligrams per deciliter to express bG.
Cons? The US adopted the obsolete system in common practice and people are lazy to change from what they are familiar with.
How to convert? It's easy. Just remember the number 18 as a conversion factor until you get used to thinking of the new unit. It's this simple: 18 mg/dl = 1mM.
What's your opinion on a US switch-over? What say you? Make your case here.
Examples.
The euglycemic range is typically 3.9 - 10 mM.
(same as 70 - 180 mg/dl)
The desired clinical clustering of bG data is around 6.0 to 6.5 mM.
(same as 108 - 117 mg/dl)
Hypoglycemia is defined as bG <3.9 mM. (same as <70 mg/dl)
Severe Hypoglycemia is commonly described as bG <2.5 mM. (same as <45 mg/dl)
The range of bG meters is 1.1 to 33.3 mM which pretty much covers all values one is likely to encounter. (same as 19.9 to 599 mg/dl)
My own morning f(bG) meter reading today was 7.0 mM. (same as 126 mg/dl)
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by pancreaswanted on -
in spain we still use the mg/dl. if it changed id be all c0nfused....
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Permalink Reply by Timothy on -
HA the US can not even manage to switch to the Metric system.
My kids are still learning the Farenheit and Feet and inches.
It really boggles the mind.
I think Americans just do not like to change this kind of stuff.
When I was in Highschool I was told that the metric system would be the only used system in the world.Here we are.
I for one am used to mg/dl and I could easily learn another system but I certainly wont change without good reason.
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Permalink Reply by Shawnmarie on -
I remember learning the metric system in grade school and the terror of "the future" when we would really have to use in our every day lives because the U.S. would be switching. Still waiting. . . .
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Permalink Reply by TimmyMac on -
we'll switch over when England decides to drive on the correct side of the road :)
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Permalink Reply by Tom Goffe on -
Stipulating that your arguments to change the metric are valid and substantial enough to warrant a change, is it worth:
- intangible costs associated with the inevitable errors in pre-meal boluses,
- avoidable hypoglycemic episodes attendant to bolus miscalculations,
- added challenges for patients, health care providers and family & friends who assist patients in managing the disease
- infrastructure costs for physicians, hospitals and labs to convert to the standard you propose
- costs in translating glucose data from the old standard to the new when reviewing patient medical records not in an automated format
If the current standard is universally understood and applied by all concerned, the cost/benefit analysis does not appear to support a conversion to a different standard. The same idea was proposed to convert imperial measures to metric in the United States and in the end the benefits were not deemed substantial enough to warrant the change. I suspect the same applies to this idea.
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Permalink Reply by jims on
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ahmen to that. there is not a dang dollar's worth of savings and a mountain of confusion and grief as well as a mountain of conversion costs.
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Permalink Reply by Brian Wittman on -
I don't know why this is even an issue. I know how many units I need because my CDE has given me a formula to use that I really can understand, and has programmed the said formula into my pump and meter for my ease of use. The current system works fine. Why mess with it?
As I told my college algebra instructor: "Personally, I really don't give a damn about X, as long as you cannot tell me what X is."
If making those conversions works well for you, By all means, go for it. As for me, please see the previous paragraph.
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I would offer a different view:
The farenheit scale offers wider range and differentiation on temperature as to what humans operate in and smaller weight numbers.
The celseius scale e offers the reverse - 3 dugit weight numbers and a vary narrow temperature range numbers. Bugger the celseius nonsense for the sense of beaurocratic cleanilness and book keeping/scientific excuses.
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