title: Glycemic risk factors of diabetic vascular complications: the role of glycemic variability.
abstract: Achieving adequate targets relatively to all risk factors is considered a standard of care for patients with diabetes mellitus. To date, current guidelines underline the importance of the 'glucose triad' (post-prandial glucose, fasting plasma glucose and glycated haemoglobin) as the three glycemic factors that should be controlled in diabetes care; however, several literature data show that optimizing glycemic control needs achieving a control of glycemic variations. The objective of the present work is reviewing biological and clinical data supporting the role of glycemic variability, its measurement and relationship with the three other well-known glycemic risk factors and evidencing the areas that need further investigation. At last, we propose a simple model that summarizes the 'glucose triad' plus the 'new' risk factor glycemic variability (the 'Pyramid of the Risk').
authors.affiliation: Diabetologia, Catholic University, Rome, Italy. frazac@fastwebnet.it
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zaccardi
authors.forename: Dario
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pitocco
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ghirlanda
mesh_terms: D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism*; D015190:Blood Glucose Self-Monitoring; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000097:blood; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications*; D003925:Diabetic Angiopathies / Q000209:etiology*; D005215:Fasting / Q000097:blood; D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D019518:Postprandial Period / Q000502:physiology; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose; D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin