Research Paper on Artificial Pancreas

Introduction

An artificial pancreas is a man-made technology that matches the functionality of the pancreas. Artificial pancreas is designed for regulating the levels of glucose in the blood by releasing the insulin as a response to the changing levels of blood sugar for the diabetic patients, in the same way as the human pancreas. The concept of the artificial pancreas can be traced back to late 1950s when Professor Perry McCullagh, an endocrinologist, demonstrated an artificial endocrine pancreas device in the form of a closed-loop regulatory system made up of a transmitter, an insulin syringe and a glucose monitoring device. This laid the foundation for further developments in technology aimed at treating patients with diabetes mellitus. (Cobelli, & Kovatchev, 2011).

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After several attempts, a successful use of an artificial pancreas which comprised of an auto analyzer, a pump driving system and a minicomputer system was achieved in the clinics. The subsequent break-through saw the reduction of the size of the complete system to the creation of a bedside-type of an artificial endocrine pancreas. Thereafter, Bio stator was developed even though currently no longer used. Several devices have been developed and applied in clinical operations and have greatly transformed the researches for studying the pathophysiology of diabetes mellitus (Cobelli & Kovatchev, 2011).

The linkage of the artificial pancreas as a wireless continuous blood glucose monitor and also as a dual-hormone pump that jointly operates to sustain the blood sugar levels for diabetics has some pros and cons. Some of the pros include the following: Artificial pancreas has greatly reduced the burden on the diabetics to retain their glucose levels, as a result, reduces the cost of the associated diabetics' complications (Hermanides & DeVries, 2011).

An artificial pancreas is a potential life enhancer for people living with diabetes, since the continuous blood glucose monitor has the ability to forecast low and high blood glucose levels, for initiation of the corresponding response mechanism that ensures regulation of the blood glucose levels. This has been seen as a step closer to the technology for curing diabetes.

Some of the cons of the artificial pancreas device are: the system need is not appropriate for athletic diabetics because they play contact sports thus difficult to maintain the device connected. The device has two external components which must be carried and be connected at all times and also there is a need to supplement and maintain the device. The malfunctioning of the artificial pancreas has serious life-threatening risks to the diabetic patients. Generally, the artificial pancreas is more of a preventive device and not a complete cure for diabetes despite the various developments that has been made (Hermanides& DeVries, 2011).

Conclusion

The pancreas is a key organ in the body that discharges various hormones such as insulin and glucagon, in addition to hormones, it also secretes digestive enzymes that assist in the breakdown of food. The secreted insulin helps the cells to absorb glucose from the blood for energy use hence reducing the level of blood glucose. Glucagon triggers the liver to discharge stored glucose thus raising the blood glucose levels (Peyser& Skyler, 2014). The artificial pancreas is a device intended to simulate the glucose-regulating function of a healthy pancreas. The purpose of an artificial pancreas device is to monitor glucose levels and simultaneously regulates the secretion of insulin to reduce the high levels of blood glucose, at the same time, to minimize the incidence of low levels blood glucose with little or no aid from the patient.

References

Cobelli, C., Renard, E., & Kovatchev, B. (2011). Artificial pancreas: past, present, future. Diabetes, 60(11), 2672-2682.

Hermanides, J., Phillip, M., & DeVries, J. H. (2011). Current application of continuous glucose monitoring in the treatment of diabetes: pros and cons. Diabetes care, 34(Supplement 2), S197-S201.

Peyser, T., Dassau, E., Breton, M., & Skyler, J. S. (2014). The artificial pancreas: current status and future prospects in the management of diabetes. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1311(1), 102-123.