DENVER -- Diabetic children can now check their blood sugar without pricking their fingers. In a recent study, GlucoWatch, a new automated noninvasive device to monitor blood glucose, significantly improved glucose control in children with type 1 diabetes.
The GlucoWatch biographer is a device worn on the skin that monitors glucose levels in fluid extracted across the skin of diabetic patients.
Researchers from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center studied the effects of monitoring 40 children with poor glucose control with GlucoWatch compared to conventional means of finger stick blood glucose monitoring.
In the study authors report that the GlucoWatch biographer was well tolerated by children and adolescents and significantly improved glucose control compared to standard regimens.
Intensive treatment of type 1 diabetes significantly reduces the risk of developing or worsening associated conditions including eye, kidney and nerve complications. Although successful intensive treatment requires glucose monitoring four or more times daily, most patients, especially adolescents, monitor blood glucose only one or two times daily. Intensive therapy is associated with an increased risk of severe bouts of low blood sugar making glucose monitoring especially important.
Richard C. Eastman, M.D., senior study author, writes “GlucoWatch has been shown to be safe, and the glucose levels have correlated well with finger stick blood glucose levels in adults, … and similar accuracy in children and adolescents.” GlucoWatch was shown to lead to improved glucose control.
Source: Ivanhoe Newswire: Pediatrics,2003;111:790-794.
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