successful artificial diabetes pancreas
BBC Science
British scientists showed that a new device acting as artificial pancreas can be used to regulate blood sugar levels with children with type 1 diabetes.
Patients should inject insulin to control sugar levels.
The device consists of the combination of a "real time" sensor that measures the patient's glucose levels and a pump that releases insulin.
The clinical trial found that the device can improve blood glucose control during the night.
The results of the trial - published in The Lancet magazine - showed that the artificial pancreas significantly reduced the risk that the glucose levels of patients falling to dangerously low levels.
The advance has been qualified by experts as a very important step in the management of the disease.
Type 1 diabetes is a chronic and potentially lethal disease, which occurs when the pancreas cannot produce insulin, the hormone that regulates sugar levels - or glucose - in the blood.
In the study, carried out at the University of Cambridge, England, 17 children and adolescents participated with type diabetes who used the device for 54 nights that remained admitted to a hospital.
Individually, the two components of the device - the glucose monitoring system and insulin pump - are already available in the market and are used extensively.
But to make them a "closed circle" system that could monitor the patient's condition and supply treatment, the researchers developed a sophisticated algorithm to calculate the adequate amount of insulin that should be supplied based on real time readings of the real time of theglucose.
Subsequently, they measured if the artificial pancreas system could better control glucose levels than the continuous regular pump used by children, which releases insulin according to the previously indicated amount.
lethal crisis
The glucose sensor (1) monitors the sugar level, the data is sent to a computer (2) that regulates the dose of insulin, and the pump (3) releases insulin.
Tests were carried out in different circumstances.For example, during the night, when the children went to bed after consuming a large dinner - which can lead to an "stack" of insulin - or after having carried out exercises.
These two activities can cause an increase in the risk of low glucose levels episodes, known as hypoglycemic shock.
In general, the results showed that the artificial pancreas managed to maintain glucose levels in the normal range for 60% of the time, compared to 40% of the continuous pump.
And the artificial pancreas reduced in half the time that glucose levels fell below 3.9 mmol/l (millimoles per liter), the level considered as moderate hypoglycemia.
He also prevented blood glucose from falling below 3.0 mmol/L, which is defined as significant hypoglycemia, compared to nine hypoglycemia events in control groups.
"This is the first controlled study that shows the potential benefit of artificial pancreas systems during the night using commercially available sensors and pumps," says Dr. Roman Hovorka, who directed the study.
"And this is the first step for the system to be tested at the patient's house."
advance
For his part, Dr. Aaron Kowalski, of the Youth Diabetes Research Foundation, told the BBC that the progress is "extremely important."
"With type 1 diabetes we face huge challenges, because it means walking in a very fine line between hypoglycemia and the high level ofsugar, which cause the terrible complications of the disease, such as blindness, kidney disease and amputations, "says the expert.
"Those are long -term risks. But in the short term hypoglycemia is a risk that the patient faces every day and can be lethal."
"But this study shows that with a computer program we can dramatically improve glucose control and, most importantly, we can reduce the risk of terrible episodes of low sugar levels that both patients and their parents fear so much,"The expert expresses.
