Bionic pancreas has passed field tests
The latest version of the bionic pancreas, developed by researchers at the University of Boston and the Massachusetts General Practice Clinic, led by Dr. Edward Damiano, successfully passed two five-day clinical trials, one of which involved adult patients, and the other – adolescents.
An earlier version of the device in 2010 showed promising results in two clinical trials lasting 27 hours and 2 days. However, these studies were conducted in a clinic where patients mostly adhered to bed rest and consumed the amount of food prescribed to them.
The key advantage of the new version is its portability, which allows patients to lead an almost normal lifestyle, including exercising and eating any foods.
In addition to the improved software that allows you to adapt the device to a wide range of individual needs of the body in hormones, the new system involves the use of more advanced equipment, including a smartphone (iPhone 4S) (above), which provides wireless information exchange with a monitor placed inside a subcutaneous needle that monitors blood glucose levels, and two injectors (below).
A program is installed in the smartphone, in which patients enter data on the content of carbohydrates in food (perhaps in the future they will not have to count calories themselves, using a program to automatically estimate the caloric content of foods on a plate).
Every five minutes, the smartphone receives data on the concentration of glucose in the blood and calculates the necessary dose of insulin or glucagon for the patient, subsequently administered using one of the injectors. The calculations also take into account information about the carbohydrate content in the products consumed by the patient, administered to them immediately before eating.
In one of the clinical studies of the latest version of the bionic pancreas, 20 adults took part, who during the study were free to take any action – except that they had to spend the night in a hotel and stay within three square miles of it: at this distance, the device allowed medical personnel to monitor their condition.
The second study involved 32 patients aged 12 to 20 years. All of them were participants of a recreation camp for young people with type I diabetes mellitus and during the 5-day study followed the general daily routine and diet.
According to the researchers, all participants demonstrated fairly good blood glucose levels even against the background of the use of standard hormone replacement therapy regimens. However, the new system has significantly improved these results and reduced the frequency of episodes of hypoglycemia.
On the upper part of the smartphone screen, you can see blood glucose monitoring data (black circles) recorded every five minutes, as well as (for comparison) the results of capillary blood analysis (red asterisks). The lower part of the screen shows the automatically administered doses of insulin (blue) or glucagon (red).
Currently, the researchers are planning to conduct two more clinical trials. Participants of one of them will use a bionic pancreas for 11 days. They will live at home and lead a normal lifestyle, but they will not move away from the research centers for a significant distance. The second study will involve children aged 6-11 years.
The results of the work were presented at the 74th scientific session of the American Association of Diabetologists held on June 13-17 in San Francisco.
Article by Steven J. Russell et al. Outpatient Glycemic Control with a Bionic Pancreas in Type 1 Diabetes is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on Medical Xpress materials:
Bionic pancreas controls blood sugar levels in adults, adolescents with type 1 diabetes.
16.06.2014