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■糖尿病患者需要定時注射胰島素以控制血糖。資料圖片
科學家利用「人工胰臟」的抽送和監察系統，能改善糖尿病人的血糖控制，首次顯示新裝置較傳統治療的療效更佳。
英國劍橋大學的研究員在醫院對17名患有1型糖尿病的兒童，連夜測試新裝置，發現新裝置能在60%時間維持其血糖在重要的「正常」水平。
研究員表示，新系統包括火柴盒大小的監測器和向身體提供胰島素的泵，可將身體血糖跌至危險水平的時間減半。
醫療裝置生產商研發人工胰臟多年，向患有1型糖尿病的病人提供胰島素。1型糖尿病是一種自體免疫的疾病，身體會摧毀自己製造胰島素的能力。
1型糖尿病患者身體不能適當分解血糖，若無接受治療，病人的血管和神經會受損，器官衰竭，最終死亡。
領導研究的劍橋大學學者霍沃爾卡在電話訪問中表示：「這些裝置可改變1型糖尿病的料理方式，但轉變的過程是循序漸進的。」他又說，研究成果是「重要的踏腳石」，為未來推出人工胰臟到市場作準備。但他預期，還要幾年時間微調裝置，病者才能在日常生活中無間斷地使用。
霍沃爾卡表示：「情況就如手機，手機的科技初期強差人意，功能不多，但經過幾代的演進，才能得到我們現在的產品，新裝置亦一樣。」
最終的目標是製造一個可以日日夜夜、飯前飯後和進食時監察病人血液的裝置，有需要時向病人提供胰島素。
劍橋大學的研究發現，傳統的泵有40%時間能保持血糖水平正常，而人工胰臟則可有60%時間保持正常，後者效能較佳。
霍沃爾卡指出，研究結果令人鼓舞，因為研究時包括兒童睡前飽食晚餐或曾做運動，兩者都會影響血糖水平。 ■路透社 羅國偉 資深翻譯員
Test of Artificial Pancreas Offers Diabetes Hope
Scientists have used an "artificial pancreas" system of pumps and monitors to improve blood sugar control in diabetes patients in the first study to show the new device works better than conventional treatment.
Researchers from Britain's Cambridge University tested the device on 17 children with type 1 diabetes during a series of nights in hospital and found it kept their blood sugar levels within the important "normal" range for 60 percent of the time.
The new system, which involves patients wearing a matchbox-sized monitor and a similar-sized pump with a tube to deliver insulin into the body, also halved the amount of time blood sugar dropped to worrying or dangerous levels, they said.
Medical device makers have been working for years to develop a so-called artificial pancreas to deliver insulin to patients with type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease in which the body destroys its own ability to make insulin.
The bodies of type 1 diabetes sufferers become unable to properly break down sugar and if untreated, blood vessels and nerves are destroyed, organs fail and patients die.
"These devices could transform the management of type 1 diabetes, but it is likely to be a gradual process," Roman Hovorka of Cambridge, who led the research, said in a telephone interview.
He said the results were "an important stepping stone" towards bringing an artificial pancreas to the commercial market, but predicted several years yet of refinement before it could be used day and night by patients in normal life.
"It's a bit like with mobile phones. When we started, the technology wasn't very good and the functionality was limited, and it took a number of generations to move to the device that we have now. I see the same thing with this system."
The ultimate goal is to create a device that can check patients blood day and night, during and between meals, and deliver insulin as required.
The Cambridge study found their device performed better than a conventional pump, which delivers insulin at pre-set rates and which kept blood sugar levels around normal for 40 percent of the time compared with 60 percent for the artificial pancreas.
Hovorka said the findings were particularly encouraging because the study included nights when the children went to bed after eating a large evening meal or having done exercise─both of which can affect blood sugar levels. ■Reuters
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