Tight Glycemic Control With Insulin in Hyperglycemic Preterm Babies: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Pediatrics, 04/13/2012

Alsweiler JM et al. – Tight glycemic control with insulin in hyperglycemic preterm infants increases weight gain and head growth, but at the expense of reduced linear growth and increased risk of hypoglycemia. The balance of risks and benefits of insulin treatment in hyperglycemic preterm neonates remains uncertain.

• Randomized, controlled, nonblinded trial of 88 infants born at <30 weeks’ gestation or <1500 g who developed hyperglycemia (2 consecutive blood glucose concentrations (BGC) >8.5 mmol/L, 4 hours apart) and were randomly assigned to tight glycemic control with insulin or standard practice.
• The primary outcome was linear growth rate to 36 weeks’ postmenstrual age.

• Eighty-eight infants were randomly assigned (tight group n = 43; control group n = 45).
• Infants in the tight group had a lesser lower leg growth rate (P < .05), but greater head circumference growth (P < .0005) and greater weight gain (P < .001) to 36 weeks’ postmenstrual age than control infants.
• Tight group infants had lower daily BGC (median [interquartile range] 5.7 [4.8–6.7] vs 6.5 [5.1–8.2] mmol/L, P < .001) and greater incidence of hypoglycemia (BGC <2.6 mmol/L) (25/43 vs 12/45, P < .01) than controls.
• There were no significant differences in nutritional intake, or in the incidences of mortality or morbidity.