Safety Notice – users of CGM while taking hydroxyurea

Medtronic and AMSL have issued communication regarding hydroxyurea effects on readings from Enhanced Enlite™, Guardian™ Sensor 3 and Dexcom CGM systems.

Users of the CGM systems should be aware that sensors could present inaccurate sensor glucose (SG) readings.

Hydroxyurea use results in higher SG readings compared to blood glucose (BG) readings and may result in the following:

• Hypoglycemia caused by over-administration of insulin
• Inaccurate graphs or missed alarms and alerts
• Delay to or loss of sensor-enabled insulin suspension (sensor-enabled insulin pump use only)
• SG readings in CareLink™ reports being substantially higher than BG readings

What is Hydroxyurea?

Hydroxyurea is an anti-neoplastic drug used primarily in chemotherapy. Some examples of the conditions in which hydroxyurea is more commonly used include:

• Chronic Myelogenous Leukaemia (CML)
• Head and neck malignancies, and
• Sickle cell disease.

Advice from Medtronic and AMSL

Medtronic advises to not use continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) while taking hydroxyurea.

AMSL advise Dexcom G5 and G6 users to use blood glucose meters to check glucose levels.

Medtronic and Dexcom have issued letters to all people with diabetes and health care professionals that they are aware are using the respective CGM systems.

• Click here to read the patient letter from Medtronic
• Click here to read the notice from AMSL