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Revolutionary glucose monitoring devices that are (almost) a way to regulate
glucose levels through interaction between monitor readings and an insulin
pump are due on the market in the next few years. These first wave of
continuous monitors still have some problems: their readings are not
as accurate as conventional finger-stick blood tests, and they don’t
respond quickly enough to changes in glucose levels from, say, exercise.
People who use them need to draw blood every so often for comparison.
But all that may change in the next couple of years, as manufacturers
continue to develop better software.
The basic devices are set up so that a person wears a patch on the
abdomen that covers a tiny wire that pokes through the skin to measure
glucose in cellular fluid. The patch, which is replaced every few days,
wirelessly transmits glucose readings to a receiver the size of a mobile
phone. This can then interface with an insulin pump to adjust insulin
dosages. Medtronic, Inc. won FDA approval on April 13, 2006 for glucose
monitor and a pump combination. The monitor is not fully functional
until this summer and the device isn’t yet fully automatic–you
still have to look at a glucose readout and make decisions about insulin
use.
But the manufacturer, Medtronic Inc., is working on software to automate
much of the decision-making. The resulting device could amount to an
external, artificial pancreas that basically controls blood sugar on
its own for days, with the exception that a patient would have to inform
it of upcoming meals and exercise. "We're fairly close," said
Alan O. Marcus, director of medical affairs for Medtronic's diabetes
unit. A device from DexCom Inc. of San Diego won FDA approval late
last month, and one from Abbott Laboratories of North Chicago, Ill.,
is on the FDA's desk for approval. Overall, three or four continuous
monitors are expected to be available nationwide by late summer 2006.
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