The advantages of insulin pump therapy and real time glucose monitoring systems as the tools for reducing the frequency of hypoglycemic episodes in the children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus

Abstract

The primary objective of the present study was to analyse the advantages of insulin pump therapy and real time glucose monitoring systems as the tools for reducing the frequency of hypoglycemic episodes. The study included 190 children and adolescents at the age varying from 1 to 18 years suffering from type 1 diabetes mellitus. All the patients were hospitalized at the Endocrinological Research Centre for the treatment the disease using different modalities of insulin therapy, such as multiple injections of insulin (MII) and its continuous subcutaneous infusion (CSII). The blood glucose level was monitored during 72 hours making use of the continuous blind and real time monitoring protocols (blind-CGM and RT-CGM respectively). All the patients were divided into 4 groups depending on the therapeutic modality and the mode of blood glucose monitoring. Group 1 was comprised of the patients given multiple insulin injections in combination with blind glucose monitoring ("blind-CGM + MII"), group 2 included the patients undergoing blind glucose monitoring in conjunction with continuous insulin infusion ("blind-CGM + CSII"), group 3 contained the patients treated by multiple insulin injections followed by real-time blood glucose monitoring ("RT-CGM + MII"), and group 4 was composed of the patients undergoing continuous subcutaneous infusion of insulin combined with real-time blood glucose monitoring ("RT-CGM + CSII"). In all the cases, the blood glucose levels were measured and the occurrence of hypoglycemia during the period of monitoring time was evaluated. It was shown that the highest frequency of hypoglycemia during 72 hours was recorded in the "blind-CGM" group and the lowest one in the RT-CGM groups. Despite adequate self-control, almost half of the patients in the "blind-CGM + MII" group reported at least one hypoglycemic episode either at the daytime or at night ; the duration of such episode was more than 1 hour on the average. In the "blind-CGM" group, CSII resulted in the decrease of the number of hypoglycemic episodes both at night and daytime (p<0.05). In the "RT-CGM + CSII" group, continuous insulin infusion reduced the mean duration of nocturnal hypoglycemic episodes (p<0.05) whereas this parameter was not significantly different between the other groups. It is concluded that hypoglycemia especially nocturnal one is rather a common problem facing children and adolescents suffering from type 1 diabetes mellitus. The use of insulin pump therapy and real time glucose monitoring systems (RT-CGM) makes it possible to substantially decrease the frequency and duration of hypoglycemic episodes in this population group.