An external artificial pancreas could improve glucose control and reduces the risk of hypoglycemia compared to conventional Type 1 diabetes treatments.
The finding could have a significant effect on the treatment of Type 1 diabetes, which can cause debilitating symptoms such as vision loss and cardiovascular disease, the University of Montreal reported.
The technology is an automated system that simulates the normal pancreas by adapting the amount of insulin it delivers based on glucose levels. The device comes in two models; one that delivers insulin alone and a dual-hormone artificial pancreas that offers both insulin and glucagon.
"Our clinical trial was the first to compare these two configurations of the artificial pancreas with the conventional diabetes treatment using an insulin pump," says Dr. Rabasa-Lhoret, Director of the Obesity, Metabolism and Diabetes research clinic at the IRCM and professor at the University of Montreal's Department of Nutrition. "We wanted to determine the usefulness of glucagon in the artificial pancreas, especially to prevent hypoglycemia, which remains the major barrier to reaching glycemic targets."
People suffering from Type 1 diabetes often struggle to keep their insulin levels in check, especially at night. Failure to do so could result in severe side effects down the road. The risk of severe nocturnal hypoglycemia is a major concern for patients and parents with young diabetic children.
"Our study confirms that both artificial pancreas systems improve glucose control and reduce the risk of hypoglycemia compared to conventional pump therapy," said engineer Ahmad Haidar, first author of the study and postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Rabasa-Lhoret's research unit at the IRCM. "In addition, we found that the dual-hormone artificial pancreas provides additional reduction in hypoglycemia compared to the single-hormone system."
In the future the researchers plan to test the artificial pancreas for longer periods pf time and with larger patient cohorts.
The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.
