Endocrine Abstracts

It is not possible even with the most intensive conventional insulin regimens to control Type 1 diabetes well enough to normalise metabolic control or totally prevent complications. For this, a closed loop is needed, whereby circulating insulin levels are regulated on a moment to moment basis according to needs. Only pancreatic transplantation currently achieves this. Over 20000 whole pancreas transplants have been done worldwide and a one year graft survival rate of over 80% ...

Within the United Kingdom continuous insulin infusion pumps have not been widely used. This is due to concerns over safety with the early models and fundamentally a lack of funding. With NICE guidance now recommending use in some patients there is likely to be increased demand for the provision of these instruments. The devices have considerably improved and offer an alternative to multiple dosing regimes in some patients.Whilst home glucose testing can ...

The advent of insulin almost 80 years ago revolutionised the treatment of diabetes and must be one of the great achievements of twentieth century medicine. Since then, there has been an increasing understanding of the need to attain and uphold near normoglycaemia to delay the onset and retard the progression of diabetic complications. Major advances in the understanding of the molecular assembly, biological activity and therapeutic properties of insulin have led to the many de...