Reduced Hypoglycemia and Increased Time in Target Using Closed-loop Insulin Delivery During Nights with or Without Antecedent Afternoon Exercise in Type 1 Diabetes

Objective: Afternoon exercise increases the risk of nocturnal hypoglycemia (NH) in subjects with type 1 diabetes. We hypothesized that automated feedback-controlled closed-loop (CL) insulin delivery would be superior to open-loop (OL) control in preventing NH and maintaining a higher proportion of blood glucose levels within the target blood glucose range on nights with and without antecedent afternoon exercise.

Research Design And Methods: Subjects completed two 48-h inpatient study periods in random order: usual OL control and CL control using a proportional-integrative-derivative plus insulin feedback algorithm. Each admission included a sedentary day and an exercise day, with a standardized protocol of 60 min of brisk treadmill walking to 65-70% maximum heart rate at 3:00 p.m.

Results: Among 12 subjects (age 12-26 years, A1C 7.4±0.6%), antecedent exercise increased the frequency of NH (reference blood glucose<60 mg/dL) during OL control from six to eight events. In contrast, there was only one NH event each on nights with and without antecedent exercise during CL control (P=0.04 vs. OL nights). Overnight, the percentage of glucose values in target range was increased with CL control (P<0.0001). Insulin delivery was lower between 10:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m. on nights after exercise on CL versus OL, P=0.008.

Conclusions: CL insulin delivery provides an effective means to reduce the risk of NH while increasing the percentage of time spent in target range, regardless of activity level in the mid-afternoon. These data suggest that CL control could be of benefit to patients with type 1 diabetes even if it is limited to the overnight period.