Use of a monitor that continuously measures body sugar levels is feasible and acceptable for children with insulin-dependent diabetes and their parents, and improves blood sugar control, according to results of a new study.

The continuous monitoring device called the FreeStyle Navigator has a sensor, which penetrates the skin a few millimeters. It measures blood sugar every 60 seconds and has an alarm that goes off if blood sugar is too high or too low.

In a study of 30 children between 4 and 17 years old who wore the device daily for 13 weeks, researchers saw immediate improvements in blood sugar control and these improvements were sustained for the duration of the 13-week study.

The children in the study already had good control of their diabetes and during the study they achieved even better control, without an increase in episodes of low blood sugar “despite children doing 35 percent fewer home finger-stick blood tests,” Dr. Bruce Buckingham of Stanford Medical Center, California, told Reuters Health.

Use of the device also led to a significant decrease in the proportion of blood sugar values above the target range.

Most of the children used the Navigator on an almost daily basis and parents and children were very satisfied with the data provided by the device. Almost all of the children elected to continue to use the FreeStyle Navigator after the first 13 weeks of the study.

One potential concern with real-time continuous blood sugar monitoring, Buckingham pointed out, is that patients and parents might not be able to deal with all the additional information provided by the devices. “Just the opposite was observed in this study,” he said. “Subjects and their parents felt that the Navigator made it easier to make insulin dose adjustments and diabetes management decisions and there was reduced family conflict.”

The results of this study provide “compelling evidence that support the feasibility of a large-scale, long-term trial of continuous glucose monitoring in children with type 1 diabetes,” Buckingham concluded.

SOURCE: Journal of Pediatrics, October 2007.