Can an 'artificial pancreas improve diabetic control?

In type-one diabetes (T1D), pumps delivering continuous insulin infusions alongside continuous blood glucose monitoring are increasingly becoming standard management. The next logical step is to link these devices intelligently, so that the patient does not have to check their glucose levels at all: known as a ‘closed-loop’ system, it is effectively an electronic ‘artificial pancreas’. But does this advanced technology actually improve diabetic control?

Some early small adult-only trials were inconclusive, but a more definitive randomised controlled trial from six centres in the UK and USA is more enlightening (Tauschmann M et al. Lancet 2018. doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31947-0). They recruited adults and children over 6 years old with T1D, who were already using insulin pumps but still had poor control. Of the 86 patients randomised, half were under 21 and a quarter under 12 years. Both groups used a Medtronic 640G insulin pump, and an Enlite-3 glucose sensor. In the cases,...

from Archives of Disease in Childhood current issue https://ift.tt/2C9zIWe