The “suspend before low” expertise the insulin pump is supplied with consists of a built-in algorithm that robotically suspends insulin supply if blood glucose ranges are predicted to fall.
This type of algorithm has confirmed efficient at safely stopping nocturnal hypoglycemia in earlier short-term analysis inside the hospital setting. Longer research of suspend before low pumps have been nonetheless missing.
The new research, performed by researchers on the University of Western Australia, concerned 154 kids and teenagers who wore the Medtronic MiniMed 640G pump with the suspend on low/before low system enabled or disabled (management group) for six months.
The pump was mixed with using steady glucose monitoring (CGM) information to foretell and stop hypos. The research examined whether or not there was a higher lower in CGM values under three.5 mmol/L (63 mg/dL) when utilizing the suspend before low characteristic.
Before starting the research, all kids and their dad and mom crammed out questionnaires assessing their worry of hypoglycemia and total high quality of life.
It was proven over the research interval that utilizing the pump with the suspend before low characteristic lowered the probability and length of hypos.
There was a higher discount in the time spent under three.5 mmol/L (2.eight% to 1.four%) by means of the day and night time in contrast with the sensor-augmented pump (three% to 2.6%), and the group utilizing the algorithm-augmented pump had fewer hypos (139 vs. 227).
After six months, members who had been utilizing the suspend before low characteristic solely spent 20 minutes in hypo vary per day whereas these on the usual pump spent a mean of 38 minutes in hypo vary.
In addition to this, fewer members on the improved Medtronic pump had impaired hypo consciousness by the tip of the research.
The outcomes additionally indicated that neither group skilled a major change in their HbA1c ranges and that there have been no issues with using the algorithm-enhanced pump.
Despite being extra environment friendly at decreasing hypos, the pump with the suspend before low expertise has had no impression on the standard of lifetime of members or their worry of hypos inside the research.
Overall, these findings counsel that insulin pumps which might be programmed to suspend insulin supply in response to anticipated low blood sugars could also be an excellent choice for decreasing hypos in younger type 1s with poor glucose management and/or hypo unawareness.
The outcomes have been printed in the journal Diabetes Care.
