April 24, 2000
Technology and Diabetes
Tidbit Archive
| Diabetes is a disease in which certain cells in the pancreas, known
as beta cells, fail to produce enough insulin, a protein that is necessary
for the body to metabolize sugar (glucose). The result is inadequate
nutrition and a variety of side-effects caused by excess glucose in the
blood, including nerve damage, kidney disease, blindness, and cardio-vascular
problems.
In Type I diabetes, also known as Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (IDDM) or Juvenile Diabetes (because it usually develops in childhood or adolescence), the beta cells are completely destroyed by an auto-immune disease.* Between 10 and 20 million people worldwide have Type I diabetes. In the U.S., 1.4 million adults and 123,000 children are affected. Type II diabetes (Non-Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus -- NIDDM -- or adult-onset diabetes) often is the result of obesity and is caused by the body's inability to use the insulin it produces. Between 8 and 10 million Americans suffer from Type II diabetes, including ten percent of people over 70. Type II diabetes can usually be treated by diet and oral medication. Type I requires the administration of insulin, usually by injection, several times each day, and careful monitoring of blood glucose levels. The economic costs of diabetes are staggering; some sources suggest as much at 15 percent of all health care costs are associated with it. A great deal of progress has been made in treatment in recent years, much of it based on new technologies. Among these are pager-sized insulin pumps (see the picture above), which can maintain a continuous low-level flow of insulin into the body, and other new forms of administration, including inhalers. Techniques for transplanting beta cells and the "islets" which contain them are under development. Glucose monitoring has also advanced tremendously in just a few years, benefiting from developments in electronics and biochemistry. Progress in biomedical science is bringing a clearer understanding of autoimmune disease and the possibility of prevention. Information and telecommunications technologies, too, are making contributions by analyzing monitoring data and transmitting it to medical practitioners. The links below provide information on many of these developments. |
*A disease by antibodies or T cells that attack molecules, cells, or tissues of the organism that produces them -- i.e., a disease in which the body's defenses against disease attack its own cells.
Links:The two major non-government diabetes research and education organizations in the U.S.: the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and the American Diabetes Association provide a wealth of information on diabetes and new technologies and research related to it, as does the U.S. government's National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse.
Diabetes Technology and Therapeutics, a quarterly peer-reviewed journal covering new technologies and products for treatment and prevention of diabetes.
Insulin pump web ring. Annotated links to 26 sites, including personal pages, support groups and even chat rooms for users of the insulin pump.
MiniMed, Inc. of Sylmar, CA, makes the tiny pump shown above and other products for diabetes care.
Inverness Medical, Inc. (formerly Selfcare, Inc.) of Waltham, MA, is the manufacturer of glucose monitoring devices.
Polymer Technology Systems, Inc. of Indianapolis, IN, makes the BioScanner, which provides several blood chemistry tests important to diabetics at once, including glucose, ketones, cholesterol, and triglycerides.
Most current glucose monitors require drawing a small drop of blood (usually with a finger prick) and placing it on a reagent strip that is read by an instrument. The Gluco Watch, made by Cygnus, Inc. of Redwood City, CA, is a new device worn on the wrist that measures blood glucose automatically up to three times an hour by using a minute electric current, without drawing blood. It has been approved for sale in the European Community and an FDA advisory panel has recommended its approval in the U.S.
February 2000 report on development of a new gene therapy technique that would use a genetically-engineered virus to bring insulin genes to a person's cells and use pills to trigger the release of the insulin.
An update on islet transplantation from the University of Minnesota's Diabetes Institute.
Information on islet transplantation from the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Application of virtual reality and biofeedback technologies developed by NASA to help diabetes patients visualize and manage their own blood flow.
The Diabetic-Terminal for diabetes data management, from the FIT Foundation in Wohlen, Switzerland.
Detroit News article (from July 1999) about a device that allows diabetics to transmit blood glucose readings to their physicians via modem.
CNN story (May 1999) about insulin inhalers.
The history of insulin, the discovery of which in 1922, is undoubtedly the single most important advance in treatment of diabetes to date.
