"An Artificial Pancreas For Pregnant Women With Diabetes" - Jennifer Henderson
Specialists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai are part of a team planning to develop and evaluate an artificial pancreas to improve health outcomes for pregnant women with type 1 diabetes and their babies. The team is planning a series of clinical trials aimed at yielding a safe and effective device for all stages of pregnancy. The device is expected to help women better manage blood sugar levels for best fetal outcomes. “The numbers have to be stringently controlled because higher glucose levels can impact the developing fetus,” said Carol Levy, MD, clinical director of the Mount Sinai Diabetes Center and the project’s principal investigator at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The National Institutes of Health–funded team also includes members from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the Mayo Clinic and the Sansum Diabetes Research Institute. Many women with type 1 diabetes want to have multiple pregnancies but decide not to because the process is so challenging, Dr. Levy said. Improved outcomes for both mothers and babies include smaller baby size as well as fewer C-sections, fetal deformities, early deliveries, intensive-care-unit admissions and fetal deaths.
— Carol J. Levy, MD, Clinical Director, Mount Sinai Diabetes Center, Associate Professor, Medicine, Endocrinology, Diabetes, Bone Disease, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai