Artificial pancreas system reduces risk of nocturnal hypoglycemia

An article recently published in The Lancet reports that using an artificial pancreas system overnight can significantly reduce the risk of nocturnal hypoglycemia in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes. Moreover, the first clinical trial of an artificial pancreas system delivering both insulin and glucagon has shown that this system can prevent development of hypoglycemia. The latest issue of the journal Diabetic Hypoglycemia (http://www.hypodiab.com) reviews advances in artificial pancreas design and production in further detail.

Dr Roman Hovorka, a leading artificial pancreas researcher and author of the Lancet paper discusses developments in the field of closed-loop insulin delivery and reviews system components and challenges to the introduction of this technology into clinical practice, including the need for superfast-acting insulin analogs, dual hormone approaches to accelerate insulin absorption, and optimization of the clinical infrastructure to support the use of closed-loop systems.

Professor Simon Heller's related editorial details how technological developments supporting diabetes self-management have so far failed to lead to major improvements in glycemic control or to consistently reduced rates of severe hypoglycemia. He explains that one reason may be the requirement for patients to estimate both basal and prandial insulin doses, which can be demanding for many patients and may lead to ineffective diabetes self-management. Professor Heller discusses how the introduction of closed-loop systems might address this issue.