An artificial pancreas controls blood glucose better than a sensor-augmented insulin pump in children aged between six and 13 with type 1 diabetes, US researchers say.

During the 16-week randomised trial at four centres, the 78 children in the artificial pancreas (also known as a closed-loop) group saw their glucose levels in the target range 67% of the time compared with 55% of the time among the 23 youngsters with a sensor-augmented insulin pump.

“The percentage of time that the glucose level was in the target range of [3.9-10mmol/L] (as measured by continuous glucose monitoring) was 11 percentage points higher among those who used the closed-loop system than among those who used a sensor-augmented pump,” the research team reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“That’s 2.6 additional hours per day in the target range,” Dr R Paul Wadwa, a professor of paediatrics at the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus and a coauthor of the study, said.