New Blood / Ketone testing meter launched by Menarini
The Glucomen LX Plus is a no coding meter with facility to test blood for either glucose or ketones with specific glucose or ketone testing strips.
The ability to test for blood ketones can be a distinct advantage for people with Type 1 Diabetes in order to detect early on, the presence of acidic ketones and so potentially to prevent the development of the harmful condition Diabetic KetoAcidosis or DKA.
DKA still has a mortality rate of around 5% in the UK and any action that can prevent the development of the condition is clearly crucial.
Blood glucose test strips are available on prescription but blood ketone test strips will only be available in the UK after June 2011.
The Glucomen LX Plus follows behind the Medisense Xceed as the second dual blood glucose / ketone monitoring meter in the UK.
Artificial Pancreas Update
The Artificial Pancreas Moves Gradually Closer
Article from Diabetes UK News 15 April 2011
Research funded by Diabetes UK, and supported by the Juvenile Diabetes Resarch Foundation (JDRF), has for the first time successfully demonstrated the potential of an ‘artificial pancreas’ in preventing night-time hypoglycaemia in adults with Type 1 diabetes.
Hypoglycaemia (or a ‘hypo’) occurs when the level of glucose in the blood falls too low. If left untreated the person having a hypo can eventually become unconscious after experiencing warning signs as the body tries to raise the blood glucose level.
These unpleasant signs often include feeling shaky, sweating, tingling in the lips, heart pounding, and irritability. In extreme cases hypoglycaemia can lead to coma and brain damage, and can sometimes prove fatal.
The ‘artificial pancreas’ or closed-loop insulin delivery system automatically manages a person’s diabetes. The device regulates blood glucose levels by releasing insulin when alerted to high levels of glucose, and withholding it when levels are low.
Currently people with Type 1 diabetes have to either inject insulin several times a day or wear an insulin pump which releases the hormone via a cannula inserted under the skin.
University of Cambridge researcher Dr Roman Hovorka led two studies to evaluate the performance of the artificial pancreas in 10 men and 14 women, aged 18 to 65, who used an insulin pump for at least three months.
The first study monitored 12 participants overnight after consuming a medium-sized meal (60g carbohydrate) at 7pm. In the second study, the other 12 participants were monitored overnight after consuming a larger meal (100g carbohydrate) accompanied by alcohol at 8.30pm.
The studies showed a 22 per cent improvement in the time participants kept their blood glucose levels in a safe range, halving the time they spent with low blood glucose levels and reducing the risk of both short-term and long-term complications.
Dr Roman Hovorka said: “Hypoglycaemia remains a major challenge, especially during the night, so it’s encouraging to see such promising results from our trial using commercially available devices.
“The study is a stepping stone to testing the artificial pancreas at home and suggests that the artificial pancreas may be suitable in adults as well as in children and adolescents we found previously”.
Diabetes UK Director of Research Dr Iain Frame said: “Although early days, this exciting area of research is a fantastic example of how existing technologies, in this case, insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors, can be adapted and developed.
"The improvements in glucose control overnight using this new technology are impressive and it is good to see this work develop with the addition of testing the effects following a meal with some wine.
“We now need to see an extension of this study, one which tests larger numbers of people, and then take it out of the hospital and into the home setting.”
Weight-Loss Surgery Report
Weight Loss (Bariatric) Surgery Report
Source BBC News 13 April 2011
The UK's first large-scale study on the impact of weight-loss surgery has reported a large reduction in type 2 diabetes and other health problems.
The National Bariatric Surgery Registry said type 2 diabetes fell by 50% and on average patients lost nearly 60% of their excess weight a year after surgery, based on 1,421 operations.
The Royal College of Surgeons says the NHS should prepare for rising demand.
Ministers say it is up to the local NHS to provide weight management services.
The report says the world has been engulfed by a pandemic of obesity. In the UK, it says there are about one million people who could benefit from bariatric surgery - which includes gastric bypasses and gastric bands.
Out of an estimated 10,000 such operations carried out in the UK during the financial years 2008/09 and 2009/10, the audit looked at 7,045.
The report includes detailed one-year follow up data for 1,421 operations. Of these, 379 patients had type 2 diabetes before surgery, while one year later that figure had fallen to 188.
There were also improvements in blood pressure and in everyday tasks such as climbing stairs.
The authors argue that by reducing the associated costs of obesity, such as treatment for diabetes, bariatric surgery offers "a real bargain for the health economy and for wider society".
Alberic Fiennes, a bariatric surgeon and chairman of the National Bariatric Surgery Registry (NBSR) Data Committee, said the treatment should be made more widely available on the NHS.
"An approach that limits treatment to a fraction of those who would benefit is one which the NHS will rue in years to come as these patients become an unsustainable burden on the health service," he said.
"Prevention strategy alone has proved ineffective; there are at least two generations of morbidly obese patients who are now presenting with diabetes, stroke, heart disease and cancer for whom preventative measures are utterly irrelevant."
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Fiennes said obesity was a "devastating, disabling and life-shortening disease".
Bariatric surgeon Alberic Fiennes explains how gastric surgery works and the benefits it has for patients
When asked about the morality of the surgery, he said: "There is no question people become overweight because the eat more food than they need.
"Just in the same way people develop coronary heart disease because they didn't do two 10-mile runs a day and ate some bacon sandwiches in an earlier life, and yet we treat them.
"I think it is very invidious to set the disease of one person against another. What we have to recognise is this a new disease and as the world changes new diseases appear."
Royal College of Surgeons president John Black said the problem was not going to "miraculously disappear" and called on the government to develop a long-term plan.
"Surgeons have been saying for years that the NHS is on the brink of being swamped by obesity-related referrals," he said.
However, the chairman of the charity Diabetes UK, Professor Sir George Alberti, emphasised that people who were obese should try to lose weight through diet and lifestyle changes first.
A Department of Health spokesman said surgery should be "a last resort".
"Often, just losing a small amount of weight can reduce the risk of problems such as type 2 diabetes," he said. "The local NHS should have weight management services in place to meet the needs of their population."
Diabetes Drug May Treat Cancer
Diabetes drug could treat breast cancer, say scientists
Article from BBC News 15 April 2011
A drug routinely used by thousands of diabetics could play a part in fighting breast cancer, research suggests.
Scientists in Manchester have developed a new test to identify patients with aggressive forms of the disease who could benefit from Metformin.
The discovery was made by the team at the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Unit at the University of Manchester.
They said it could herald "an important new way of tailoring treatments" to the needs of cancer patients.
A team, led by Professor Michael Lisanti, found that some cancer cells stimulate normal healthy cells to feed them "high-energy foods", known as lactate and ketones.
They discovered that Metformin, a common drug used to treat diabetes, blocked the process.
Patients whose cancer cells "fed" off high-energy compounds were more likely to see their tumours spread or become terminal, they found.
It meant they could be helped by being given the diabetes drug, which essentially cuts off the "fuel supply" for aggressive cancer cells.
Scientists used the findings to develop a method to predict which patients had a poor prognosis - and those who could benefit from the drug.
"The potential benefit [of administering drug] is that it will stop the cancer cell being fed by the normal cell and then the cancer cell won't grow," the professor told the BBC.
"So this represents a rather new approach to the treatment of cancer.
"It's a very exciting development because we have a whole new area to attack at the cancer cell, how it feeds itself from the normal cells.
"And we can look to see what sorts of other drugs block this interaction between the cancer cell and the normal cell."
New hypo treatment.
Hypo-Fit, a new hypo treatment in various flavours, is now available. See "prescribing codes" for details.
