Investigation on the limits of type 1 diabetes therapy automation using insulin pumps

Abstract

Type 1 diabetes is an incurable chronic disease that usually has its onset in childhood. The disease means that the patient’s body irreversibly loses its ability to produce the insulin hormone. Since the lack of insulin in the organism always leads to death, the therapy primarily consists in supplying the hormone from the outside inright doses and in the right time. Administration errors can result in poor mood, health complications or even death. The introduction of insulin pumps for common use as basic devices for insulin delivery has significantly improved the quality of the therapy, and what follows, the physical and mental comfort of patients. It is still easy to get an opinion that these devices completely automate the therapy process, but this is not true. The aim of this research was to determine the possible level of the automation of the type 1 diabetes therapy solely based on an insulin pump. First, the principle of operation of typical modern insulin pumps was described. This became the basis for the development of a special biocybernetic model of a patient with diabetes. Then, the model was used in numerous computer simulations whose output was confronted with historical data obtained from real patients. The research confirms that the use of a typical modern insulin pump alone does not fully automate the therapy of type 1 diabetes. Nevertheless, possible methods could be identified to achieve a higher quality of treatment and to find opportunities for additional automation. These methods can be considered as an alternative to the socalled artificial pancreas.