Mixing insulins okay for kids with diabetes

	Tweet

Children with type 1 diabetes, who have to take multiple injections of insulin, can safely mix rapid-acting and long-acting insulin analogs in the same syringe without compromising long-term control of their blood sugar levels, new research shows.

Type 1 diabetes, which is typically diagnosed in childhood, occurs due to the loss of insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. By contrast, type 2 diabetes, which usually develops in adulthood and is closely linked to obesity, is caused by decreased sensitivity to insulin. With both types, sugar has a difficult time getting into cells, so it accumulates in the blood.

The ability to give rapid-acting insulin analogues (such as Apidra, NovoRapid) and long-acting insulin glargine (Lantus) in the same syringe has the potential to decrease the number of daily injections and increase use of insulin glargine, Dr. Rosanna Fiallo-Scharer, from the University of Colorado in Denver, and colleagues note in the Journal of Pediatrics

The researchers compared blood sugar control in 55 children who mixed insulin glargine and a rapid-acting insulin analogue with that seen in 55 children who took separate injections.

After 6 months, sugar control was nearly the same in each group. Likewise, the groups were comparable in terms of the percentages of blood sugar levels that fell outside the target range.

Low and high blood sugar complications were uncommon and occurred with similar frequency in each group, the report indicates.

“The findings are especially encouraging to those patients who wish to minimize the number of total daily injections because of needle fear, forgetting injections, or other injection-related issues,” the researchers state.

SOURCE: Journal of Pediatrics, April 2006.

RELATED STORIES:
Phone contact with nurses linked with better outcomes for women with gestational diabetes   Death rate drops among Americans with diabetes -CDC   Correct treatment of common diabetic foot infections can reduce amputations   “Pre-diabetes,” diabetes rising among U.S. teens   Experimental bariatric surgery controls blood sugar in rats with diabetes   53 millions Americans might develop diabetes by 2025   New inflammation hormone link may pave way to study new drugs for type 2 diabetes   Diabetic retinopathy research could reduce screening costs   Liver fat gets a wake-up call that maintains blood sugar levels   Low testosterone levels could raise diabetes risk for men   Prosthetic lets diabetic get a foot up on life   Dealing with Diabetes, One Patient at a Time

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

There are no comments for this entry yet. [ + Comment here + ]