A randomized study reported that a 'closed-loop' insulin delivery system performed better than sensor-augmented pump therapy for type 1 diabetes patients over 12 weeks. Insulin delivery system monitors blood glucose and administers insulin automatically.

During the study, researchers compared deliveries in 58 patients. Of them, 33 were adults who used the closed-loop system day and night, and 25 were children or adolescents who used it just overnight.

Co-author Hood Thabit, MD, of the University of Cambridge Metabolic Research Laboratories, said among adults, the proportion of time the glucose level was in the target range was 11.0 percentage points greater than in the control group. It was 24.7 percentage points higher for teens.

The findings were presented by Thabit during an oral session of the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes. AT the same time, the research was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

During the study, the candidates who were not remotely monitored or supervised belonged to multiple sites. They spent 84 days on the closed-loop system, then 84 days with standard insulin therapy.

The authors wrote, "The current study extends and confirms findings from our previous, shorter trials during free daily living in adults and adolescents".

Researchers found that the results weren't all good news for the closed-loop systems as one adult suffered severe hypoglycemia when the system lost connectivity because the battery ran out.

Furthermore, researchers reported that for adults, the mean glucose level was lower during the closed-loop phase as compared to during the control phase by 11 mg/dL. The area under the curve for the time when glucose level was

They found that for children and teens, the mean nighttime glucose level was lower in the closed-loop group by 29 mg/dL and the area under the curve for the time that glucose level was