Pancreas, artificial, development sensors

Development of Subcutaneous-Type Glucose Sensors for Implantable or Portable Artificial Pancreas... 

In order to provide for the complete therapy of diabetic patients, an implantable or portable closed-loop type artificial pancreas must be developed. The key factor in the development of such system is development of a small-size glucose sensor which is able to measure directly up to 500-700 mg/dl of BGL in a blood stream or in a body fluid. 

About ten years ago, Bessman et al(10), University of Southern California, developed a glucose sensor of enzyme electrode type with glucose oxidase (G0X) for an artificial pancreas. This sensor had... 

The application of an artificial endocrine pancreas (AEP=Biostator) with feedback control could be useful in the clinical management of unstable diabetics (Ohno et al., 1983). Former early closed-loop devices were large bedside machines (Pfeiffer et al., 1974) with only limited application for long-term use. More recent research has developed small glucose sensors which, however, have had only preliminarily testing for clinical application. External insulin pumps must be further miniaturized and technical failure... 

Glucose is probably the most frequently assayed nonionic analyte in clinical chemistry, but only recently have reliable sensors been developed for this species [66, 67]. At present, the lack of a suitable glucose sensor can be regarded as the rate-limiting step in the development of an artificial pancreas. 

As you pointed out, 1 think that much research activity should be done In the field of the Implantable glucose sensor since the development or an artificial pancreas Is one of the Important challenges of today and one of the domains where, as stated In the title of this forum, electrochemistry could be of the service of mankind. 

A number of external or internal pumps have been developed as insulin infusion pumps, or an artificial pancreas, which gives a more precise control over the body s insulin level. These devices normally inject the insulin solution directly into the patient s blood. Many of these "artificial pancreas devices are able to vary the rate of insulin administration, and much progress has been made to couple these pumps with a microprocessor controlled glucose sensor which would closely approximate normal pancreatic activity. Most of these infusion pumps utilize poly-(dimethylsiloxane). 0,41... 

A safe, implantable glucose-electrode would be a welcome development for diabetics who monitor their glucose-level and particularly for one-fifth of the diabetics who require insulin treatment. With its development it should also become possible to perfect an artificial pancreas built of three components (a) an already existing, externally worn, or implanted, insulin pumpi , (b) a readily manufacturable microelectronic logic, memory and timing circuit, and (c) a safe, in vivo glucose sensor. 

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