Curves and Curve Plotting Programs

[We Hope]

Here are two links for some:

http://www.gorbzilla.com/cheryl_and_rocky.htm

These are Excel spreadsheets, BTW.

http://www.vetsulin.com/vet/Tools_GlucoseCurve.aspx

You can use this online--the information does NOT get sent back to Intervet. This also allows you to print out your results.

HTH!

[We Hope]

Caninsulin site Curve generating tool

Much of the website caninsulin.co.uk was restricted to veterinarians who are registered to use the more medical portion of the website.

Caninsulin Excel curve plotting program. If you click the link shown below, you will be able to download the program without difficulty.

http://web.archive.org/web/200611041...ucosecurve.xls

This is a new Caninsulin UK website link for the Excel curve plotting program. I was once more allowed to view areas of the site which had been reserved for medical professionals for a while. Was able to download this updated file without any problems:

http://www.caninsulin.co.uk/document...ecurve_002.xls

These are the direct links for those downloads; you'll be asked if you want to save or open the file when you arrive at either URL above. The blood glucose measurements this program will work with will be mmol; if you want or need to use a program using mg/dL values, you'll need to use the Vetsulin Online Curve Generator at:

http://www.vetsulin.com/vet/Tools_GlucoseCurve.aspx

[k9diabetes]

Renal threshold and nadir

Was writing this out for something else so thought I'd post it here...
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Renal Threshold

Okay, so the 180 threshold is the blood sugar level (more or less) at which sugar starts spilling over from the blood to the urine. If a dog's or person's blood glucose stays under about 180, the urine will not show any sugar in it.


Any time the blood glucose spends over 180 mg/dL, some sugar will spill into the urine and accumulate there until the dog next empties the bladder. The longer the urine build up, the higher the amount of sugar in it, which is why it's difficult to say much from a urine test.

The ideal goal is for a diabetic dog's blood sugar to stay under that magic number of 180, called the "renal threshold." Doesn't always happen of course. Chris, when he was well did spend most of his time under it but some days were off.


This renal threshold limits what a urine strip tells you. Because as long as the the blood sugar is under 180, no sugar goes into the urine to measure on the strip. The BG could be 50 (too low) or 170 (higher than normal but pretty good) and the urine strip test will give the same result - negative for glucose.


Nadir


The nadir is the lowest point of the blood sugar between injections and it's an important spot to check a dog when you're doing blood glucose testing because that's when the risk of low blood sugar is the greatest. For a lot of dogs on NPH or Vetsulin, that occurs about 6 hours after injection, though there's a TON of variation dog to dog and some variation day to day in one dog.


The nadir tends to be described as the insulin peak but that's not really accurate. Blood sugar levels are always a combination of the body's base level of blood sugar PLUS food being digested and converted into sugar that goes in the bloodstream PLUS the insulin and at any given moment some amount of each of those things is contributing to the blood sugar level.


The body's base level and the food being digested are adding to the BG and the insulin is reducing the BG. So whatever level you read is the balance between those two forces. So by six hours after injection, a lot of the food given six hours earlier is long gone, as is some of the insulin that was given. What you get at the "nadir" is the point where the insulin is running things and bringing the blood sugar as low as it's going to be able to drop it before losing potency because most of it is used up. At which point, after the nadir, the BG starts rising.

In this sample of a really nice curve (nice because the numbers are mainly in the 100s and it's fairly flat - not much difference between lowest and higher blood glucose), the nadir occurred at 4 hours in this 8 hour curve. That's hours after injection along the bottom and the BG reading on the left axis.



This curve is pretty much perfect control for a diabetic dog. Levels not too low or too high with room for variation in the lowest level.