An artificial pancreas system could help safely manage type 1 diabetes in children (Image: aldenchadwick via Flickr)
Posted on 02/20/2010 9:12:52 PM PST by neverdem
'Artificial pancreas' could remove multiple daily finger prick tests for children with type 1 diabetes
An artificial pancreas system being developed by scientists at Cambridge in the UK could help safely manage type 1 diabetes in children. The new system combines a commercially available continuous glucose monitor and an insulin pump, and uses a sophisticated algorithm which calculates the correct amount of insulin to deliver based on real-time glucose readings.
The research team found that using an artificial pancreas system overnight can significantly reduce the risk of hypoglycemia, or "hypos", when blood glucose levels drop dangerously low, while sleeping. "Hypos" are a major concern for children and adults with type 1 diabetes.
The Cambridge University team studied 17 children and teenagers with type 1 diabetes, measuring how well the artificial pancreas system controlled glucose levels compared with the children's regular continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) pump, which delivers insulin at preselected rates.
The study included nights when the children went to bed after eating a large evening meal or having done early evening exercise. Both are challenging to manage - a large evening meal because it can lead to so-called "insulin stacking" and, as a result, a potentially dangerous drop in blood glucose levels later in the night, and late afternoon or early evening exercise because it increases the body's need for glucose in the early morning and can therefore increase the risk of night time hypoglycemia.
The results showed the artificial pancreas kept blood glucose levels in the normal range for 60% of the time, compared with 40% for the CSII. It also halved the time that blood glucose levels fell below 3.9mmol/l - the level considered as mild hypoglycemia - and prevented blood glucose falling below 3.0mmol/l, which is defined as significant hypoglycemia.
Dr Roman Hovorka of the Institute of Metabolic Science at the University of Cambridge said: "Our results show that commercially-available devices, when coupled with the algorithm we developed, can improve glucose control in children and significantly reduce the risk of hypos overnight."
"This is the first randomized study showing the potential benefit of the artificial pancreas system overnight using commercially-available sensors and pumps. Our study provides a stepping stone for testing the system at home."
Type 1 diabetes, a chronic, life threatening condition is on the increase. Children and adults require multiple daily insulin injections or pump infusions and many finger prick blood tests each day. However, treatment with insulin increases the risk of hypoglycemia.
The artificial pancreas could remove the need for multiple daily finger prick tests and insulin injections, as well as offer better control of blood glucose levels overnight.
An artificial pancreas system could help safely manage type 1 diabetes in children (Image: aldenchadwick via Flickr)
What if...
the ‘health care’ deathcare idea is cover to kill off ‘certain’ populations, at the same time as extraordinary life extension technologies ‘appear out of nowhere’ that will enable living much, much longer..........
Waitaminute: how is this significantly different than the Minimed (now Medtronic Minimed) continuous insulin pump that’s been available for decades now?
As one whose connection to the sciences is through an engineering education, I’ve read about the idea of artificial pancreases for years, but nobody seems to be actually making them. A gadget that you could shoot full of insulin once a week and then would watch blood sugar for you and release insulin in accordance, would be regarded as the next best thing to getting a new pancreas. Isn’t a major problem with this that the insulin will not “keep” in a reservoir at body temperatures? So that it has to remain an externally attached appliance?
FReepmail me if you want on or off the diabetes ping list.
Apparently what they did was link a CGMS (Continuous Glucose Monitoring System) with an Insulin Pump. It constantly “reads” blood glucose and adjusts the pump to keep stable levels.
Will this eliminate all the pricks in Washington, DC? Like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Lindsay Graham, Arlen Sphincter, et al.?
>> It could work for anyone who is an insulin dependent diabetic, but a malfunction could be fatal.
Not if they add a small pouch of glucose on to the pump. All I can say is GIMME!!!
Thanks for the clarification — but that’s what Minimed has been doing for years. The Minimed product is based around such a continuous glucose monitor (developed, by the way, as part of the Viking program by NASA). So what makes this “new” product so much better?
The Minimed doesn’t look like a true closed loop system. It warns the user of trends and levels, but user input (and in some cases, manual backup tests) must take place in order for it to meet a predicted need.
Of course as you suggested if the system goes haywire it could kill the patient.
My 10yr old daughter was diagnosed with type 1 when she was six. We have been using a pump for 3 yrs and a CGMS for two. From our experience, and that of all the families my wife has talked to, at this time CGMSs are not accurate or reliable enough to replace finger pokes.
However, there will come a day when technology will overcome. Assuming Obama will leave us alone of course.
Pumps and sensors will still have a place in medicine, but they have their downsides, e.g. all foreign bodies can become colonized with pathogens, battery lifespans, drug replenishment, pump or sensor failure.
I'm not an immunologist either, but I remember reading about dendritic cells, a part of the immune system, reacting to molecules of insulin from adjacent beta cells. So, I don't see any immunosuppressant drug doing the trick any time soon either. Immunosuppressant drugs have a tendency to create their own new headaches.
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