Medtronic Mediterranean launches world's first Arabic-language integrated insulin therapy for improved diabetes management

It is the first integrated insulin therapy to display real-time continuous glucose readings and trend graphs, allowing patients to make immediate self-management decisions to improve their glucose control after confirming readings with a fingerstick measurement. Taking immediate corrective or preventive action can help patients maintain healthy glucose levels in order to delay or prevent diabetes-related complications, including coma, blindness, kidney failure, amputation, impotence and heart disease.

The Paradigm REAL-Time System integrates an external insulin pump with continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The system's glucose sensor takes as many as 288 daily glucose readings per day - providing nearly 100 times more information than three daily fingerstick readings provide.

Current standards for assessing glucose control include A1C tests and fingerstick measurements, yet both have limitations. An A1C test, which measures glucose control over a three-month period, is important for long-term management, but it is only an average and does not reveal day-to-day glucose fluctuations that can damage the body. In turn, fingerstick measurements only reveal a glucose value at a single moment in time. As a result, patients are unable to detect approximately 60% of low glucose (hypoglycemia) events and have difficulty assessing glucose fluctuations while they sleep. In contrast, real-time CGM allows patients to view glucose trends throughout the day and night, and understand how fast, and in what direction, their glucose levels are heading. By discovering how diet, exercise, medication and lifestyle affect their glucose levels, patients can make more informed self-management decisions and achieve a greater sense of confidence when managing their disease.

The system's continuous glucose sensor is a tiny electrode that is inserted under the skin using the Sen-Serter, a small device that makes sensor insertion easy for patients or their caregivers. The sensor measures glucose in the interstitial fluid found between the body's cells, and is typically discarded and replaced after three days of use. Glucose measurements obtained by the sensor are relayed every five minutes from a transmitter to the external insulin pump, which displays three-hour and 24-hour trend graphs, as well as arrows to indicate how quickly glucose is moving up or down. In addition, an alarm alerts patients when glucose levels become too high or too low.

"In order to manage diabetes properly, patients must continually understand what affects their glucose patterns and take action to regain control as quickly as possible," states Dr Bassam. S Bin-Abbas, MD,FAAP, FACE, Consultant Endocrinology & Diabetes. "By viewing trends and real-time glucose information, patients can program their pump to start or stop insulin delivery upon demand, or they can eat carbohydrates to counteract for low blood sugar. Timely information coupled with precise insulin delivery is why this integrated insulin therapy has the potential to revolutionize diabetes management."

The Paradigm REAL-Time System incorporates "smart" Paradigm 522 or 722 insulin pumps, which have powerful built-in Bolus Wizard® calculators to manage the complex diabetes math for patients. These pumps recommend insulin dosages after considering the amount of insulin still "active" in the body, helping patients avoid dangerous hypoglycemic episodes caused when too much insulin is delivered. The system is calibrated twice a day (every 12 hours) by entering a blood glucose measurement from a standard meter into the insulin pump.