Patients with type 1 diabetes who use an experimental closed-loop artificial pancreas device have blood sugar levels within a target range for longer than those who use a sensor-augmented insulin pump, a study shows.

In the randomised controlled trial of 168 patients with type 1 diabetes aged 14-71, the primary outcome was time spent in a target glucose range of 3.9-10mmol/L.

While the 56 patients in the control group had glucose levels within the target range 59% of the time, the 112 volunteers using Tandem Diabetes Care’s Control-IQ device had levels in the range 71% of the time over six months.

“[That equated] to 2.6 more hours per day spent in the target range in the closed group. That’s a lot,” said co-author Professor Boris Kovatchev, director of the University of Virginia Centre for Diabetes Technology.