The results of a study that looked at the efficiency of the so-called artificial pancreas show that it might be a step in a good direction for diabetics that need to constantly keep their blood glucose levels in check.
Blausen 0699 PancreasAnatomy2
By BruceBlaus. When using this image in external sources it can be cited as:Blausen.com staff (2014). "Medical gallery of Blausen Medical 2014". WikiJournal of Medicine 1 (2). DOI:10.15347/wjm/2014.010. ISSN 2002-4436. CC BY 3.0], from Wikimedia Commons
This new revolutionary device is capable of not only monitoring glycemia but also delivering the needed hormones to the organism making it almost a dream come true for diabetics. A team led by experts from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki has taken a look at 41 studies about the security and effectivity of two different artificial pancreases used by over 1000 volunteers. And it shows that volunteers were about 10 % more often in the “healthy range” of blood glucose levels every day.
And what exactly makes this artificial pancreas so revolutionary? The fact what the amount of insulin or glucagon that will be injected into the body is determined by algorithms. That means the patients do not have stress themselves about it leading to a better less stressful life. But scientists still want more studies to take place because many of the studies conducted so far were only very short-term studies (three quarters lasted only a week) and thus could not provide information about long-term effects of artificial pancreases and none were performed on children aged five or less.
Sources: