Jul 23 2010
Type I Diabetes is a dangerous disease that can lead to fatal kidney dysfunction, heart attacks, blindness, stroke, and peripheral nerve damages.
A survey showed that approximately 240000 Canadians are afflicted with Type I Diabetes, which wreaks havoc on the pancreatic cells. Previous modus operandi for regulating insulin levels included numerous injections every day, MDI therapy or Insulin pens as replacement for needles and syringes. The next step was the development of computerized pump which proved to be better than the old conventional methods, but still incomplete.
According to Doug Mumford, a 60 year old Type I Diabetic, enduring this life style altering disease, for the past 42 years, the recent innovation incorporating a sensor which acts as a concurrent glucose monitoring equipment, into the insulin pump is the ideal solution. The sensor reads glucose levels for every 5 minute interlude and transmits the data to the pump, thereby permitting users to react to low or high levels before the situation turns perilous.Once the need is determined, the basal dose can be set and administered by releasing the necessary dosage. A trial called STAR 3 over a year was conducted in over 30 centers in North America and Canada where 485 Type I diabetic children and adults were registered, with Mumford being one of them. According to Dr. Bruce Perkins, Principal investigator and endocrinologist for Toronto’s General Hospital, Blood-sugar control was tracked right through the year and a noteworthy improvement was found in the regulation of blood sugar levels. The results of the trial sponsored by Medtronics Inc, a U.S. based company producing pump-sensor systems were printed in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Perkins stated that, minimizing blood sugar levels was not arduous , but to ensure that the sugar levels do not plummet to precariously low levels was more intricate, and that using the pump sensor device helped ameliorate low blood sugar or hypoglycemia which could pilot a host of problems like coma, seizures and death. He believes that, other pump producing companies such as Animus and Roche, collaborating with Sensor makers such as Abbot and Dexcom, to produce similar devices, are in the offing.
For diabetics like Mumford, this pump-sensor has proved to be of great benefit, by helping him monitor his real-time sugar levels without major life style changes.
Source: http://www.medtronics.com