Jannie
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 Posted: 11/07/06 - 16:40 Post subject: 'Artificial Pancreas' on The Way to Ease the Lives of The Di |
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Scientists are doing everything in their power to make the lives of the young diabetics as easy as possible. They are working on a device called ‘artificial pancreas’ that will monitor glucose levels and deliver insulin according to the monitoring results.
Type 1 diabetes in children is a disease that starts early and destroys pancreas’ cells that produce the insulin, hormone needed for controlling blood sugar levels. For the time being, people who suffer from the disease have to check their blood sugar levels manually and then inject the necessary amount of insulin up to six times a day by using an insulin pump or syringes. Many are already using external insulin pump therapy which is designed to remove the need for a daily series of injections.
The new device will be doing everything automatically, checking the levels every minute and drastically improve the lives of the affected not allowing their blood sugar levels to go too low or two high. This may be extremely important for youth whose blood sugar levels often fluctuate.
When the monitoring device detects changes in blood sugar levels, it will transmit this signal to a handheld computer that will further calculate the amount of insulin needed and send information to the insulin pump.
The device is developed and the studies will begin in January next year. The artificial pancreas will act as natural one, delivering insulin whenever it is needed.
Everybody is excited about this new device. A prototype will be made and tested first by a computer simulation system using "synthetic" children for safety reasons. If everything goes as planned, controlled laboratory experiments will take place. |
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