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02-19-2018 | Insulin pumps | News

ATTD 2018 in brief

More support for insulin pumps in type 2 diabetes

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medwireNews: The results of a small study support the use of continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion for insulin-dependent patients with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes.

From an initial value of 9.0%, patients’ glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) fell to 7.8% at 3 months and 7.6% after 6 months of switching to an insulin pump, Andrej Janež (University Medical Center, Ljubljana, Slovenia) reported at the Advanced Technologies & Therapeutics for Diabetes conference in Vienna, Austria.

The 18 patients were aged an average of 57.5 years and had type 2 diabetes lasting an average of 16.5 years. They stopped all medications except for metformin before starting to use an insulin pump. Despite the lower average HbA1c level, patients had significantly fewer confirmed hypoglycemia (<3.9 mmol/L) episodes after switching to pump treatment, with the average number per week falling from 1.69 at baseline to 1.07 at 6 months. Their weight did not change during follow-up.

At baseline, patients were using an average of 99 units of insulin per day; this did not change significantly during follow-up, falling slightly to 93 units per day, so that the improved glycemic control was achieved without an increase in insulin dose. In the 2014 randomized OpT2mise trial, type 2 diabetes patients allocated to pumps significantly reduced their insulin dose related to those who continued using injections.

By Eleanor McDermid

medwireNews is an independent medical news service provided by Springer Healthcare. © 2018 Springer Healthcare part of the Springer Nature group

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