An artificial pancreas that can keep track of one's blood sugar and pump in insulin when necessary, is a step closer to reality, as an insulin pump worked flawlessly in a new study.
The insulin smart pump by Medtronic, a well-known manufacturer and developer of medical technology and devices based in Minneapolis, performed well during a three month study. The results of the study were published June 22 on The New England Journal of Medicine and reported during a conference of the American Diabetes Association.
The study was designed to test the device, which will be a key component for an artificial pancreas, if it will pump insulin into the blood stream if a person's blood sugar gets critically low while sleeping.
"This study showed that over a 3-month period the use of sensor-augmented insulin-pump therapy with the threshold-suspend feature reduced nocturnal hypoglycemia, without increasing glycated hemoglobin values," the conclusion of the study stated.
The proponents of the research titled "Threshold-based Insulin-pump Interruption for Reduction of Hypoglycemia" recruited 247 patients with Type 1 diabetes. The patients were assigned to two groups that received threshold-suspended or standard sensor-augmented insulin pump therapy.
During the study, the smart pump was able to lower the rate of severe hypoglycemic events by 38 percent and nighttime hypoglycemia by 32 percent. There were also no recorded severe hypoglycemic event that required medical assistance during the study.
The artificial pancreas will be a combo of technologies. It will have a sensor to keep track of blood sugar levels and an insulin pump in one setup.
"This is the first step in the development of the artificial pancreas. Before we said it's a dream. We have the first part of it now and I really think it will be developed," said Dr. Richard Bergenstal, diabetes chief at Park Nicollet in St. Louis Park and lead author of the study, in an interview with NPR.
The Medtronic-developed MiniMed 530G, the device used for the study, is already in European markets. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration still have the device under review. It is the only device at the moment with a threshold suspend feature.
"Aspire In-Home met both its safety and efficacy endpoints and it provides additional clinical validation for Threshold Suspend, the first diabetes technology to automatically take action based on sensor glucose values," Dr. Francine Kaufman of Medtronic explained through a press statement. Aspire is the code name for the company-sponsored study.
