This has the potential to revolutionise the treatment of patients with Type 1 diabetes.
- Roman Hovorka
Type 1 diabetes is a lifelong condition caused when the pancreas stops producing the insulin needed to control blood sugar levels. Patients must carry out frequent finger-prick tests and inject insulin to keep their blood sugar within safe limits. Left untreated, Type 1 diabetes is fatal; even suboptimal control increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, nerve damage and blindness.
Patients under the age of five are a particularly vulnerable group. Too young to recognise the shaking and dizziness that warn of a drop in their blood sugar, they are at high risk of developing overnight hypoglycaemia.
Now, a clinical trial with this age group is testing an ‘artificial pancreas’, developed by the group of Dr Roman Hovorka, Director of Research at Cambridge University’s Metabolic Research Laboratories.
“Using an off-the-shelf insulin pump and continuous glucose sensor, we’ve developed a computer algorithm to control their function in a closed-loop fashion, delivering the correct amount of insulin according to blood sugar levels,” he said. “By maintaining tight control of blood sugar, this has the potential to revolutionise the treatment of patients with Type 1 diabetes and significantly improve their quality of life.”
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Image: Sugar spoon
Credit: The District
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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