Fig. 1

Distribution of blood target ranges in intensive care units. Each vertical bar represents a unique blood glucose target range, extending from the lower to the higher blood glucose target value. Figures above the bars indicate the numbers of centres that used a particular target range. Centres are ranked according to the lower boundary used and then according to the higher boundary used. Note that centres could measure blood glucose in g/L or in mmol/L. In the latter case, mmol/L were converted to g/L and rounded to the nearest decimal place. One centre (seventh target range from the left) had a single blood glucose target (0.8 g/L), which required stopping insulin treatment whenever blood glucose fell below this value, and conversely restarting insulin whenever blood glucose rose above 0.8 g/L. Only one centre used the same narrow target range (0.8–1.1 g/L) as the one originally used by Van der Berghe et al. in 2001 for tight glucose control [33]. The lower boundary of target range used was never as high as the one used by Van der Berghe et al. (1.8 g/L) for patients of the conventional treatment group targeting blood glucose between 1.8 and 2.0 g/L