Specialized education and support improve the awareness of hypoglycemia in people with type 1 diabetes who have lived with the disease for a long time and suffer from inadvertent hypoglycemia (HI), without compromising blood glucose control.
"We demonstrate that the lives of people with type 1 diabetes that are complicated with HI can improve with specialized education and support, regardless of how they use insulin and monitor blood glucose," said the main author of the study, Dr. James A.M.Shaw, from the Newcastle University, in Britain.
"Despite the dangerous and usual crises before the investigation, 80 percent of the Hypocompass study participants did not suffer another serious hypoglycemia during the study," he added.
Almost half of the people with type 1 diabetes for more than 15 years have serious hypoglycemia (HG) that demand the assistance of another person to recover, as published in the magazine Diabetes Care Shaw and colleagues in the United Kingdom and Australia.
The authors point out that a quarter of people with type 1 diabetes suffer from HI, and that HG is six times more common in these patients.
The team compared the effectiveness of different approaches to control and monitor blood glucose in patients with HI, defined as a Gold 4 or higher score.97 percent used multiple daily injections (MID) at the beginning of the study and 3 percent used insulin pumps.The average HBA1C value was 8.3 percent.
Before randomizing patients, they participated in an educational session of one or two hours oriented to four points: "never delay the treatment of hypoglycemia; recognize high -risk personal moments; detect subtle symptoms, and check the fall of theGlucose with the usual self -control, especially night hypoglycemia. "
Patients also received information on the adjustment of the amount of insulin with carbohydrate consumption, blood glucose automation (AMGS) and planned activity.
They learned to consume carbohydrates when glucose values fall below 4.0 mmol/l.
Then, random, the 96 patients integrated one of four groups.
The participants met with the researchers every four weeks and received weekly telephone calls to reinforce compliance with guides on insulin administration and hypoglycemia prevention.
The amount of biochemical hypoglycemia (3.0 mmol/l or less) decreased from 53 minutes per 24 hours to 24 minutes per 24 hours, without deterioration of the HBA1C value.
"We thought that severe hypoglycemia was an inevitable consequence of long -term diabetes, that the condition worsened over time. Now, for most, a patient worsens because 'hypoglycemia causes hypoglycemia'. The Hypocompss studio shows that you can breakThat vicious cycle in most cases, "Shaw said.