NEJM: Artificial pancreas improves blood sugar control throughout the day in children with type 1 diabetes.

Screenshot Source: New England Journal of Medicine Artificial Pancreas is a closed-loop controlled "all-in-one" diabetes management system that tracks blood sugar levels through a continuous blood glucose monitor (CGM) and automatically infuses the appropriate dose of insulin through an insulin pump to mimic the function of a healthy pancreas to regulate blood sugar.
the artificial pancreas technique used in the study was the Control-IQ system from Tandem Diabetes Care.
in early studies, the system has yielded positive results in adolescent and adult patients, and this study demonstrates that smaller child patients can benefit as well.
based on the results of this series of studies, the Control-IQ system was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December 2019 for use in children over 6 years of age.
The study, conducted at four pediatric diabetes centers in the United States, recruited 101 children between the ages of 6 and 13 who were assigned to the trial and control groups, which used a new artificial pancreatic system, and 100 who used standard CCM and separate insulin pumps.
registration and data collection is carried out every other week for a period of four months.
subjects were asked to continue their daily lives so that researchers could better understand how the system worked in a typical child's life pattern. the
Control-IQ Artificial Pancreatic System (Photo: Tandem Diabetes Care) found that children who used the artificial pancreatic system had a 7 percent increase in daytime blood sugar control and a 26 percent increase in the ideal time for nighttime blood sugar control compared to the control group.
blood sugar control is particularly important for people with type 1 diabetes, as severe, uncontrolled hypoglycemia can lead to seizures, coma and even death.
overall, when the artificial pancreas system was used, the time it took for blood sugar to be controlled increased by almost 11%, or an average of 2.6 hours per day.
the study, there were 16 adverse events in the artificial pancreatic system group, all classified as minor, most of which were due to problems with insulin pump equipment.
adverse events occurred in the control group.
did not have severe hypoglycemia or diabetic ketoacidosis during the study.
"Artificial pancreas technology is safe and effective for children with type 1 diabetes, an important step in improving their quality of life and disease management," said Dr. Griffin P. Rodgers of the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).
" Resources: s1. Marc D. Breton, et al., (2020). A Randomized Trial of Closed-Loop Control in Children with Type 1 Diabetes. N Engl J Med, DOI:10.1056/NEJMoa2004736 Retrieved Aug 26, 2020, from s.3. UVA-developed people pancreas effective for children ages 6-13, finds. Retrieved Aug 26, 2020, from.