{"id":1849,"date":"2016-06-30T19:36:26","date_gmt":"2016-06-30T19:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/?p=1849"},"modified":"2016-06-30T19:36:26","modified_gmt":"2016-06-30T19:36:26","slug":"insulin-only-bionic-pancreas-can-control-blood-glucose-levels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/insulin-only-bionic-pancreas-can-control-blood-glucose-levels\/","title":{"rendered":"Insulin-only bionic pancreas can control blood glucose levels"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Use of an insulin-only bionic pancreas effectively controls blood glucose levels, with no difference in episodes of hypoglycemia (low blood glucose levels), compared to a bihormonal (insulin plus glucagon) bionic pancreas, when both insulin-only and bihormonal configurations used a target blood sugar of 130 mg\/dl, according to a study.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Previous studies have demonstrated that a bihormonal bionic pancreas can effectively manage blood glucose levels in people with type 1 diabetes, with minimal episodes of hypoglycemia. In this study, an insulin-only bionic pancreas using the same insulin-dosing algorithm as a bihormonal bionic pancreas, but configured with a higher glucose target than the 100 mg\/dl used in all previous bionic pancreas trials, was tested to determine if it could both effectively control blood glucose levels and maintain low rates of hypoglycemia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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In this random-order, crossover study, two insulin-only configurations of the bionic pancreas (at glucose targets of 130 mg\/dl and 145 mg\/dl) were compared to three bihormonal configurations (insulin and glucagon; glucose target of 130 mg\/dl, 115 mg\/dl, and 100 mg\/dl) and to usual care (patient-managed, conventional insulin pump therapy) over the course of three days.<\/p>\n

A total of 20 subjects (9 males and 11 females) completed the study. The age range was between 20 and 77 years old. During the 72-hour study, participants were allowed to perform normal daily activities with no limitations on diet or exercise. Hypoglycemia was defined as the percentage of time spent with blood glucose levels less than or equal to 60 mg\/dl.<\/p>\n

The study found that raising the blood glucose target to 130 mg\/dl increased the mean glucose achieved by the bihormonal bionic pancreas (156\u00b112 mg\/dl in the 130 mg\/dl configuration vs. 146\u00b115 mg\/dl in the 115 mg\/dl target configuration vs. 136\u00b114 mg\/dl in the 100 mg\/dl configuration, p\u22640.016 for each comparison). When a target glucose of 130 mg\/dl was used there was no significant difference between the mean glucose achieved by the insulin-only configuration and the bihormonal configuration of the bionic pancreas (161\u00b117 mg\/dl vs.156\u00b112 mg\/dl, p>0.28, respectively), and no difference in hypoglycemia between the two bionic pancreas configurations (0.8\u00b11.4% vs. 0.6\u00b11.0%, p>0.28).<\/p>\n

Likewise, both bionic pancreas configurations at the 130 mg\/dl target had similar mean glucose and hypoglycemia vs. the usual care arm (158\u00b131 mg\/dl, 1.4\u00b12.6%, p>0.28 for all comparisons). Mean glucose levels for the insulin-only bionic pancreas with a target of 145 mg\/dl were higher (174\u00b123\u00a0mg\/dl) than all other arms (p<0.034 for all comparisons), and raising the glucose target did not result in a reduction in hypoglycemia (1.0\u00b11.5%, p>0.28 for all comparisons). Total daily insulin dose for all of the bionic pancreas arms was similar (insulin-only with set point of 145 mg\/dl: 0.56\u00b10.21 U\/kg, insulin-only with set point of 130 mg\/dl: 0.57\u00b10.19, bihormonal with set point of 130 mg\/dl: 0.53\u00b10.16).<\/p>\n

“We were encouraged to find that the insulin-only bionic pancreas was safe, with minimal hypoglycemia. However, we’d like to see whether we can safely achieve a lower mean glucose with the insulin-only system while still maintaining low levels of hypoglycemia,” said lead study author Laya Ekhlaspour, MD, a clinical and research fellow in pediatric endocrinology at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children, Boston<\/span>. “With this mind, we are now investigating an insulin-only bionic pancreas with a glucose target lower than 130 mg\/dl (110 mg\/dl) in order to find the glucose target that will provide the best balance between mean glucose and hypoglycemia in the insulin-only configuration.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Use of an insulin-only bionic pancreas effectively controls blood glucose levels, with no difference in episodes of hypoglycemia (low blood glucose levels), compared to a bihormonal (insulin plus glucagon) bionic pancreas, when both insulin-only and bihormonal configurations used a target blood sugar of 130 mg\/dl, according to a study.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,4,35],"tags":[1065,1064,1061,19,1063,1062,1060,1059,20],"class_list":["post-1849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-wellness-2","category-newsmakers","category-wellness-2","tag-bionic-pancreas","tag-diabetes","tag-endocrinology","tag-health","tag-hypoglycemia","tag-insulin","tag-pediatric-care","tag-pediatric-endocrinology","tag-wellness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1849"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1851,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1849\/revisions\/1851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}