Artificial Pancreas Could Improve Diabetes Patients Lives
PANCREAS
The New Britain Herald
Tia Albright
Boston University Washington News Service
September 28, 2006
WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 – At 6-foot-11, Chris Dudley appears strong as he towers over others in a Senate conference room, but the former Portland Trailblazers’ center has struggled with diabetes.
“I myself have been proactive with my diabetes and have experienced difficulties,” Dudley said. “Yet, I live each day constantly worrying about the damage this cruel disease is doing to my body.”
Dudley was born in Stamford, Conn., and graduated from Yale University in 1987. At the age of 16 he was diagnosed with type 1, or “juvenile,” diabetes.
On Wednesday he was one of the panelists at a Senate committee hearing that discussed the potential for an artificial pancreas that would eliminate the need for insulin injections and blood testing.
“I tell children to be proactive in managing their diabetes,” said Dudley, who in 1994 created the Dudley Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to kids and diabetes. “But what I realize and the children unfortunately have to realize, is how difficult managing diabetes actually is.”
Dudley recalled a scary experience when, after a workout, he was driving home when his blood sugar suddenly dropped. The hypoglycemic reaction led to an accident in which he drove his car into a tree at 40 mph, he said.
The sixth leading cause of death in America, diabetes affects 21 million people. Type 1 diabetes, which typically occurs in childhood, is an autoimmune disease that occurs when the body attacks the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas.
All forms of diabetes cost the health care system more than $130 billion a year, said Arnold Donald, president and chief executive officer of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International. Over time, people with diabetes are at a high risk for heart disease, kidney disease, blindness and amputation.
“Fewer complications can, arguably, lead to one of the greatest health advances and financial savings in medical expenditures in U.S. history,” Donald told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
An artificial pancreas would create a link between two existing technologies – an insulin pump and a continuous glucose sensor that provides real-time data about the changes in glucose levels and alarms the patient if levels are going too high or too low. The alarm would allow patients to regulate their blood sugar by eating or taking insulin before they are in a dangerous situation.
The key to creating an artificial pancreas is finding a way to connect these two technologies. At Yale University Medical School and five other scientific institutions, researchers are seeing promising results in clinical trials that are working to “close the loop,” Donald said. These programs are funded by the foundation.
“While not a cure, an artificial pancreas has the potential to significantly improve diabetes care and management and to alleviate patient burden,” said Griffin P. Rodgers, acting director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
Aidan Sweeney of Gray, Maine has the same boundless energy as all four-year-old children, but he is living with type 1 diabetes. His mother, Caroline Sweeney, spoke as a panelist while Aidan sat by her side.
“As parents, we try from the moment our children are born to protect them from any harm,” Sweeney said. “Two years ago, I never felt more helpless when all I could do was hold the tiny hand of my 22-month-old son in the intensive care unit and pray he would not die. I vowed at that moment to do everything I could to find a cure for diabetes.”
Aidan wears an insulin pump around his waist 24 hours a day, his mother said. The pump is connected to an inch-long catheter, which has been changed more than 500 times in his short life and runs beneath the skin on his bottom, his mother said.
“I stand before you today, with my son, my hero, asking for your support in saving his life,” Sweeney said.
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