Wikipedia -WSS

Wikipedia

author：explore 2025-09-28 01:39:34 - browse：1381

FDA-Blood Sugar Monitor — The FDA has approved a device from Abbott that continuously monitors diabetics’ blood sugar levels without requiring backup finger prick tests. Abbott Laboratories via AP

U.S. regulators have approved the first continuous blood sugar monitor for diabetics that doesn’t need backup finger prick tests.

Current models require users to test a drop of blood twice daily to calibrate, or adjust, the monitor.

The pain of finger sticks and the cost of testing supplies discourage many people from keeping close tabs on their blood sugar, which is needed to manage insulin use and adjust what they eat.

Abbott’s new FreeStyle Libre Flash Glucose Monitoring System, approved Wednesday by the Food and Drug Administration, uses a small sensor attached to the upper arm. Patients wave a reader device over it to see the current blood sugar level and changes over the past eight hours.

Most of the 30 million Americans with diabetes use standard glucose meters, which require multiple finger pricks each day and only show current sugar level. More-accurate continuous glucose monitoring devices are used by about 345,000 Americans.

Newsletters

Sign up for Morning Rounds

Your daily dose of news in health and medicine.

Please enter a valid email address. Privacy Policy

But most don’t do the finger pricks to calibrate them and may get inaccurate readings, said Dr. Timothy Bailey, who helped test FreeStyle Libre.

“We’re able to lower blood sugar safely” with this technology, said Bailey, director of the Advanced Metabolic Care and Research Institute in California. He receives consulting fees from various diabetes device makers.

Too-high blood sugar levels can damage organs and lead to heart attacks, strokes, blindness and amputations. Very low blood sugar can cause seizures, confusion and loss of consciousness.

Abbott’s device was approved for adults with type 1 or type 2 diabetes and should be available in pharmacies within months. The company, based near Chicago, did not disclose the price of the reader or the sensors.

Abbott’s system can’t be used with an insulin pump, a device worn against the skin that allows users to inject insulin as needed, but the company is planning improvements to eventually enable that.

Rival Medtronic this spring launched a device in which the insulin pump automatically responds to blood sugar changes recorded by the sensor and either withholds or injects insulin as needed.

— Linda A. Johnson

Previous article： United colonoscopy coverage change 'may cost lives,' doctors say
Next article： Phenylephrine and the overlooked value of the placebo effect

WSS

Adele warns fans about throwing things at performers onstage

VC firm General Catalyst wants to buy a health system

Bill would stop addiction treatment from triggering child abuse inquiry

Princess Kate attends Wimbledon with Roger Federer: See the photos

Chemotherapy drug shortage eases slightly but still widespread

Pope Francis asks Church to identify 21st

hotspot

Wikipedia

Sign up for Morning Rounds

leisure time

Indiana Supreme Court upholds abortion ban, says state constitution gives only limited protections

Gov. Ron DeSantis' push for 'civics' education: What does it look like?

How one medical school became remarkably diverse

Bristol 'take

BioMarin wins approval for gene therapy to treat hemophilia A

Man with guns arrested near Obama home 'attempted to evade' Secret Service: Prosecutors

FDA approval of Sarepta Duchenne genetic therapy gives me hope

Man with guns arrested near Obama home 'attempted to evade' Secret Service: Prosecutors

Medical records are filled with copy

Bill would stop addiction treatment from triggering child abuse inquiry

Wikipedia

A Q&A with the global head of Boehringer Ingelheim's innovation unit

AI can decode, harness the power of the humane immune system

Bill would stop addiction treatment from triggering child abuse inquiry

3 questions for the future of Biden's cancer moonshot

Histogen: Failed biotech offers rare public look inside

City of Memphis, police chief oppose effort to delay lawsuit in Tyre Nichols case

entertainment

focus

knowledge

hotspot