Artificial Pancreas for Pregnant Women Acts as a Lifesaver
by Yvonne Magtibay in Fitness on Apr 04, 2011
Researchers say that an artificial pancreas given to pregnant women with diabetes could save a mother’s life and improve their baby’s health. The hormonal changes during pregnancy combined with diabetes make regulating sugar levels difficult for pregnant women, which can have damaging consequences not only to the mother but also with the baby.
The Diabetes Care research, which was funded by the Diabetes UK, proposes that an artificial pancreas can keep sugar levels normal, making pregnancy safer.
It is known that people who are diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes have the difficulty in controlling their sugar levels normal, because their pancreas stops producing insulin. This becomes fatal, especially during pregnancy.
Dr. Helen Murphy from Cambridge University said, “Half of all babies born to mothers with Type 1 diabetes are overweight or obese at birth because of too much sugar in the blood.”
To find a solution to this problem – controlling sugar levels, researchers from the Medical Research Laboratories in Cambridge experimented, studied, and fitted artificial pancreas to 10 women with the disease. The researchers had sensors that continually monitored sugar levels, which passes the information to the computer. This indicates an insulin pump and how much of the hormone to inject.
Dr. Murphy explained, “For women with Type 1 diabetes, self-management is particularly challenging during pregnancy due to physiological and hormonal changes.” Further, “These high blood glucose levels increase the risk of congenital malformation, stillbirth, neonatal death, preterm delivery, macrosomia and neonatal admission. So to discover an artificial pancreas can help maintain near-normal glucose levels in these women is very promising.”
The researchers, however, are proposing an extension of this study to further examine and study this event.
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