October 27, 2008

From The News Wire: Animas "Ping" Meter Recal

Diabetes Mine has a notice up about a recall on the Ping Meter. Amy reports that the Ping Meter may not do bolus calculations correctly if it can't communicate with to the pump. There is a reply from Animas on Amy's site. Check it out here.

October 25, 2008

Snickering All the Way

Kerri vblogged about Halloween candy, mostly snickers bars. It was like she has some kind of a Snickers obsession. Almost as if she was scared for life by having Snicker withheld from her in her formative years.

At the risk of further damaging my good reputation (I know you’re thinking “What reputation?” As if I could say anything else to make myself out to be more of a total boob.) I want to talk about Halloween candy.

Candy didn’t cause our kids to be type 1.

Candy isn’t going away because they are.

I needed to learn this but it is a lesson I learned early. I didn’t know much about diabetes; OK I didn’t know jack squat about type 1 diabetes before Connor was diagnosed other than there were some parents who had to give there kids shots every day and I thanked god I wasn’t one of them.

I hated needles. I still do.

I know a lot more now than I did then. Mostly I know not to spell out my fears for Murphy’s Law by being thankful for not having needles in my life. It is a sure fire ticket to Needleville.

Before he was released from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia I learned the lesson that candy didn’t cause Connor diabetes and his having it wouldn’t make candy go away. They were very clear - Kids with diabetes are kids and so are entitled to the joys of being a kid.

Candy on holidays is part of being a kid.

Candy based holidays are important and among the many things CHOP taught us were these two: He is trick or treating. He is eating his candy (as part of his scheduled carb intake.) They released him a day early on the morning of Halloween with solemn and serious instructions to trick or treat that night.

So I am here to say don't let your kid grow up and become some kind of a scared by Snickers bar Halloween freak like some vbloggers I know. Let them eat cake! Or in this case the candy! For Kerri I recommend the both in the form of a Crumbs' Snickers cupcake.

Be a kid with diabetes.

Kid first, diabetes second - deal with the diabetes so they can be kids.

October 23, 2008

From The News Wire: CGM and Pregnantcy

Kerri - I assume you have seen this but just in case you haven't here goes:

Glucose monitoring in diabetic pregnant women lowers risk of complications

Continuous glucose monitoring as part of antenatal care for women with diabetes improves maternal blood glucose control and lowers birth weight and risk of macrosomia (excessive birth weight in babies), according to a study published on bmj.com...

This trial provides evidence of the lasting benefits of continuous monitoring for the babies of mothers with diabetes and is a potentially important target for public health strategies that aim to reduce the burden of obesity in childhood, say the authors.

In an accompanying editorial, Professor Mario Festin says that continuous glucose monitoring increases the consistency and accuracy of glucose measurement which is vital for the nutritional and drug management of diabetes in pregnancy.

Continuous glucose monitoring is relatively cheap compared with a clinic based monitoring system and more widespread use may make it more affordable even in developing countries, he concludes.

More at http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08102322
and: http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/337/sep25_2/a1680?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT

October 22, 2008

From The News Wire: $1Million JDRF IDDP with SmartCells

SmartCells, Inc. and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Announce Partnership and $1 Million Funding to Advance SmartInsulin(TM) for Type 1 Diabetes

Wednesday October 22, 8:32 am ET

Novel Insulin Formulation Provides for Glucose-regulated Insulin Delivery


BEVERLY, Mass. & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SmartCells, Inc. and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) today announced a partnership to advance SmartCells’ SmartInsulin™ for the treatment of type 1 diabetes. SmartInsulin will be a once-a-day, glucose-regulated subcutaneous insulin formulation for treating diabetes. SmartInsulin is injectable, like today’s currently available insulins, but designed to maintain continuous, tight control of blood glucose levels while reducing the risk of hypoglycemia – like the pancreas does automatically in the absence of diabetes. As part of the agreement, JDRF will provide $1 million in first-year funding to support preclinical safety and efficacy testing. The partnership is structured to support milestone-based funding through proof-of-concept human clinical trials.

More at: http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/081022/20081022005101.html?.v=1


October 20, 2008

From the News Wire: Symphony CGM

Here is another approach at CGM that seems to have eluded my attention. Anyone know much about it?


Echo Therapeutics Announces Issuance of New Patent for Symphony(TM) Transdermal Continuous Glucose Monitoring System

FRANKLIN, Mass., Oct 16, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Echo Therapeutics announced the issuance of U.S. Patent 7,432,069 covering compositions and methods for the preparation of a polyethylene glycol (PEG)-based hydrogel as a key component of Echo's Symphony(TM) Transdermal Continuous Glucose Monitoring (tCGM) System. "Our proprietary PEG hydrogel, specifically designed to enable transdermal biosensing, is characterized by excellent stability, sensitivity, integrity and biocompatibility, making our Symphony tCGM System a desirable system for non-invasive continuous glucose monitoring," stated Patrick Mooney, M.D., Echo's Chairman and CEO. "This patent is critical to our intellectual property strategy for protecting our leading position in non-invasive, tCGM markets worldwide."



http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/echo-therapeutics-announces-issuance-new/story.aspx?guid=%7B423582AE-A88E-4624-B5A4-3BDBF941493D%7D&dist=TQP_Mod_pressN

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS79215+02-Jan-2008+PRN20080102

October 17, 2008

Additionally

Animas rated an entire sentence in the J&J earnings report call.

"Additionally, the Animas business achieved operational growth of over 30%
driven by continued market share gains in the pump business."


Well in context, diabetes was all of 4 sentences.

"...The diabetes franchise grew operationally by 10% in the third quarter of
2008. The US business grew by 9% while sales outside the US grew 12% on an
operational basis. The success of the One-Touch Ultra line has been the major
contributor to growth.

Additionally, the Animas business achieved operational growth of over
30% driven by continued market share gains in the pump business."


30% growth is impressive. If it was a stand alone it would be impressive. What is scary for those of us who depend on the products and services is that it is such a small piece of the J&J Family that smooth sailing is probably more important than innovative solutions. However I get the feeling that the strip business is more important to J&J than the pump. Just look at the screens.

October 15, 2008

From The News Wire: Misc News starting with More on Mice.

OK News hounds here are a few quickes to look at.

Protein Made In Liver Restores Blood Glucose In Type 1 Diabetes (Mouse) Model


ScienceDaily (Oct. 15, 2008) — A protein made by the liver in response to inflammation and used to treat patients suffering from a genetic form of emphysema has been shown to restore blood glucose levels in a mouse model of Type 1 diabetes mellitus, according to a new study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC)....

"To cure Type 1 diabetes, it will not be enough to halt the destructive T-cell-dependent autoimmune attack on beta cells," explains the study's lead author Maria Koulmanda, PhD, Director of Non-Human Primate Research in the Transplant Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School (HMS). "We think that it will also be necessary to restore proper insulin signaling, and the way to do that is by eliminating the curious inflammatory state that exists in muscle, fat and other insulin-sensitive tissues."
OK, unless the destructive T-cells are stopped nothing is going to work. (Hence all the interest in Faustman’s work.) That is the point of this little story in US News & World Report:

Beyond Insulin: Searching for a Cure to Type 1 Diabetes

And finally:

Positive Results Seen in Juvenile Diabetes Vaccine Study

October 10, 2008

Just Childhood

Being the parents of a type 1 child is a mind game. Diabetes gets into my head and tries to make me even more overbearing than the already strong natural instinct of every parent to over protect their kids. I have something, BG, I can manage, measure and control. It gives me something that in very short time frames gives me a false measure of parenting skill.

Of course blood doesn’t do anything of the sort. “Good” BG numbers don’t mean good parenting. In fact in my rational mind I understand that point to point there are good or bad numbers, Not that I don’t act emotionally all the time as if there are "good" numbers.

Parenting isn’t a short term deal. We need to be consistent, we need to be positive, we need to be encouraging and we need to get over our need for short term feed back. There is an amazing This American Life about how positive messages can be a big change in a child's future. So for us it is not about blood test to blood test numbers, it not about day to day numbers, it isn’t about quarter to quarter A1C. Look at Wall Street it lived quarter to quarter on good numbers with little concern for long term quality. There is a parenting analogy to be found in there.

Wall Street has some very fancy number crunchers. The have the best math wizards money can buy. They got great numbers quarter to quarter and are blowing up in one huge mess. We can become math wizards and micro manage BG and have great A1Cs.

That isn’t the goal. The goal is for the kids to grow up to be competent self managers so that we can worry about them less. Our goal is to raise them in such a way that we can have confidence in their ability to have productive happy lives while they self manage diabetes as part of that happy productive life.

Here is how we will know if we have done a good job. If when they are newly wed and anticipating their own families they look back and describe their childhood not as "childhood with diabetes" but instead just "childhood."

LY/MI Kerri. I hope I am working towards Delaney growing up with the same view of her childhood.

October 1, 2008

From The News Wire: RDIF, Non Invasive, Not Tested on People, BG Metering

Well it sounds like they just started to me but what to I know? The headline is "Researchers Finish Work on Needle-free Glucose Tester"

The idea is a skin patch that talks to you cell phobe via RDIF

Developed by Gentag, Georgetown University and SAIC, the system uses a non-invasive skin patch to measure a patient's glucose level, and an RFID-enabled cell phone to receive that data.

Sept. 30, 2008—A team consisting of Georgetown University's Georgetown Advanced Electronics Laboratory (GAEL) researchers, Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), and Gentag, has finished development on a glucose measuring system that, once commercially available, would allow diabetics to monitor their glucose levels electronically—using an RFID-enabled cell phone—without needing to prick their fingers.