To prevent their children with type 1 diabetes from undergoing repeated insulin infusions during the day and to make up for the lack of automatic infusion devices (so-called ‘artificial pancreas’), some parents are resorting to ‘homemade’ solutions , made by adapting devices for insulin infusion (pumps) and blood glucose monitoring (sensors). A phenomenon which – although still contained – risks gaining ground due to the absence of adequate instrumentation. Hence the alarm of diabetologists who invite us to press the accelerator on research to have safer tools.
In Italy, several dozen children are currently treated with these devices, according to an estimate by the Italian Society of Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetology (SIEDP) which is participating today in a meeting dedicated to this time during the Advanced Technologies & Treatments for Diabetes (ADDT) in course in Berlin. The meeting, which brings together experts and patient representatives, calls for an intensification of research and clinical trials of more automatic systems for children under the age of 6, so that in the near future all young patients with type 1 diabetes can access these innovative devices safely.
“The artificial pancreas represents the most advanced scientific innovation for the treatment of type 1 diabetes which affects about 2,000 children under the age of 6”, explains Valentino Cherubini, president-elect of SIEDP and director of the pediatric diabetes unit at the Marche University Hospital of Ancona. It is especially useful for children: “because it is equipped with sensors that monitor blood sugar automatically and very frequently and a pump that injects insulin according to need, connected in recent years to software that ‘rethinks’ insulin levels in automatically, considering not only the blood sugar but also the activity that the little patient is carrying out”, continues the expert.
These devices have also been available in Italy for some years and to date there are around 18,000 patients treated with an artificial pancreas under a reimbursement regime. Among these, however, there are very few children under the age of 6: in fact, there is only one model available on the market; the device has been available for a short time; moreover, in this age group there is a strong variability which, according to experts, would require greater personalization of the devices.
On the basis of this unsatisfied need, for some years now, patients and associations, with the support of experts, have worked on the development of home-made solutions, modifying the available devices and developing insulin administration algorithms. Starting in adults, this trend quickly caught on with children.
Now experts are asking for solutions that can combine the need for devices of this type in children with their safety. “These are homemade systems and not without risk, albeit limited, such as over- and under-dosing of insulin. These devices are often built following the open source instructions of projects downloadable from the Internet and programmed and customized to make them work on themselves or their children”, explains Cherubini, who invites us to speed up research in this field. “Obviously it’s safer to wait for clinical trials of devices awaiting authorization than to do it yourself while waiting.
But the opportunity is that this phenomenon, which can no longer be ignored, accelerates research to put low-cost devices based on new technologies on the official market, which contribute to improving the lives especially of the little ones and their parents.”
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