GLUC COMPLEX

GLUC_COMPLEX is a free software designed to analyse the variability and complexity of the glycemic profile, by Manuel Varela (MD, PhD, Hospital Universitario de Mostoles, Madrid, Spain) and Julio Suarez Llanos (Comp. Eng).
(Contact: mvarela.hmtl@salud.madrid.org)

GLUC_COMPLEX is written in R , a free software environment commonly used in bioscience.
If you have not yet installed R, you can download it from http://cran.r-project.org. You should then 'Download and Install R '.

Glycemic variability has proved to bee an independent risk factor for the development of vascular events, probably through the activation of oxidative stress mechanisms.
Complexity is a different, although somehow related metrics, and arguably offers a new window to explore glucoregulation.
In addition to the conventional statistics (mean, standard deviation, maximum and minimum), GLUC_COMPLEX calculates:

• CONGA-1 and CONGA-2 (Continuous Overall Net Glycemic Action at 1 hour and 2 hours): The standard deviation of the differences between glycemic values separated by a 1 hour and 2 hours gap. This measures assume a sampling frequency of 5'. If other protocols are used, the time gap should be recalculated.
• MAGE (Mean Amplitude of Glycemic Excursion). An excursion is defined as an increase or decrease of glycemia larger than the standard deviation of the whole series (and with a clearly identifiable end. This condition explains why certain excursions at the end of the series are not considered). MAGE is the mean of all qualifying excursions.
• Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (DFA). DFA assesses how a time series and its linear regression diverge as the "time window" increases. Intuitively, DFA can be conceived as representing the span of influence of the different points in a time series. In a series with high complexity, the influence of each point rapidly fades away, while in a "smoother" series the influence of each point lasts longer. As a rule of thumb, higher complexities are displayed as lower DFA (until a minimum of 0.5)

Please follow instruction in Readme.pdf included in the Zip file.