The huge population of diabetics is bringing heavy medical burden to the world. At present, more than 400 million of diabetic patients worldwide. The total number of people with type II diabetes in China is about 120 million, ranking the highest in the world. The adult prevalence rate increased from 0.67% in 1980 to 11.6% in 2010. In addition, the diagnosis rate of diabetes in China is low (only about 35 - 45%), and more than half of the patients do not yet know that they have diabetes. Therefore, some researchers predict that the number of potential diabetic patients in China may exceed 300 million.
Among them, diabetics usually use two types of insulin to control their blood glucose levels: long acting insulin and short acting insulin, the former helps control blood glucose levels within 24 hours, and the latter is injected at meals. Patients first measure their blood sugar level with a blood glucose meter, which requires puncturing their fingers to draw blood and dropping a drop of blood on the test paper. They must also estimate how many carbohydrates they have in their diet and combine this information with their blood glucose levels to calculate and inject the appropriate insulin dose.
Now, researchers in the Department of mechanical engineering at MIT have designed two different devices, both of which are combined with new smartphone applications. The device first requires the patient to take pictures of the food, and then the application can estimate the volume of the food and the amount of carbohydrates based on the nutritional information in the USDA database.
The first device designed by the researchers integrates many existing tools that patients now use, including a long handled needle for blood drawing and a glucose test paper. After measuring the blood sugar, the device will convey the information to the Smartphone Application through Bluetooth, and the application will calculate the correct insulin dose. The device also includes a needle that injects the correct amount of insulin. It can simplify the process of calculating and injecting the correct dose of insulin.
In order to achieve this goal, the research team designed a new glucose sensor that can be integrated into the same needle used for insulin injection. It can be connected to the needle to measure the glucose level in the stroma below the skin surface.
Once the needle penetrates the skin, it takes only 5 to 10 seconds to measure glucose levels. This information is sent to the smartphone app, which calculates the dose of insulin and delivers it through the inserted needle. In this way, it is convenient for blood measurement and insulin delivery to be carried out through the same needle.
In tests on pigs, the researchers showed that they could use the system to accurately measure glucose levels and that glucose levels decreased after insulin injection.
In any case, the final outcome of these two integrated devices may make the process of managing diabetes more simplified. This will provide a lot of convenience for the huge population of diabetic patients.
