Artificial pancreas could save lives of diabetic pregnant women
By ANIMonday, January 31, 2011
LONDON - Researchers have indicated that an artificial pancreas given to a pregnant woman with diabetes could save her life and improve the health of her baby.
Hormonal changes during pregnancy coupled with diabetes make regulating sugar levels difficult, which can have damaging consequences.
The Diabetes Care research shows an artificial pancreas can keep sugar at normal levels.
Researchers at the Medical Research Laboratories in Cambridge fitted artificial pancreases to 10 women with the disease.
A sensor continually monitored sugar levels, which fed the information to a computer, which then told an insulin pump how much of the hormone to inject.
The early study showed that normal sugar levels could be maintained.
“These high blood glucose levels increase the risk of congenital malformation, stillbirth, neonatal death, preterm delivery, macrosomia [oversized babies] and neonatal admission. So to discover an artificial pancreas can help maintain near-normal glucose levels in these women is very promising,” the BBC quoted Dr Helen Murphy, from Cambridge University, as saying. (ANI)
