Hydroxyurea can interfere with continuous glucose monitoring

What is it about?

While currently available continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems have continually improving accuracy that has revolutionized modern diabetes care, potential medication interferences are recognized for all available CGM systems. We have shown that hydroxyurea, a medication used in the treatment of diseases including cancer and sickle cell anemia, interferes with glucose readings on a commonly-used CGM system. In people who take hydroxyurea, their sensor glucose readings will be higher than their actual glucose for a period time after taking hydroxyurea, which could result in missed hypoglycemia alerts, or errors in diabetes management. Providers and patients must be aware that these CGM data must be disregarded for several hours after each hydroxyurea administration.

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