Community October 01, 2008
Artificial Pancreas Might Mean No More Finger Sticks
Mark Vincent was 10 years old when he suffered a two-month bout with strep throat, and the T-cells fighting off the infection began to attack his pancreas. Doctors diagnosed him with type 1 diabetes and kept him in the hospital for a week.
Now 16 and a linebacker for East Haven High School's football team, Vincent has to check his blood sugar levels four times a day and before sporting events. When a doctor at the Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital invited him to spend three days of school vacation time in the hospital to participate in a clinical trial for an "artificial pancreas" that would eliminate finger stick checks, he couldn't say no. "This was something that could make life easier for lots of people," said Vincent.
Stuart Alan Weinzimer, MD, attending pediatric endocrinologist at YNHCH and associate professor of pediatrics at YSM, led the first pediatric study of the automatic insulin delivery device. Funded by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the study of 17 teenagers found the device achieved a level of glucose control far superior to methods that subjects had used previously, even achieving near-normal glucose control at night, when patients risk serious hypoglycemic episodes.
Although YNHCH expects to launch further trials of the artificial pancreas in the coming months, general use is still several years away. But it could be ready by the time Mark Vincent is finished with college. He is looking forward to a bright future, and any other opportunities to participate. "It feels good to do something like this," he said. "You're making a contribution to something that will make a major difference for diabetics."
Article originally appeared in the Fall 2008 issue of the Yale-New Haven Hospital Magazine (page 20)
http://www.ynhh.org/online/magazines/fall08mag.pdf
