Scientists have used an artificial pancreas system of pumps and monitors to improve blood sugar control in diabetes patients in the first study to show the new device works better than conventional treatment.

Medical device makers have been working for years to develop a so-called artificial pancreas to deliver insulin to patients with type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease in which the body destroys its own ability to make insulin.

The bodies of type 1 diabetes sufferers become unable to properly break down sugar and if untreated, blood vessels and nerves are destroyed, organs fail and patients die. These devices could transform the management of type 1 diabetes, but it is likely to be a gradual process.

Researchers tested the device on 17 children with type 1 diabetes during a series of nights in hospital and found it kept their blood sugar levels within the important normal range for 60 percent of the time. The new system, which involves patients wearing a matchbox-sized monitor and a similar-sized pump with a tube to deliver insulin into the body, also halved the amount of time blood sugar dropped to worrying or dangerous levels.

The above results are an important stepping stone toward bringing an artificial pancreas to the commercial market, but predicted several years yet of refinement before it could be used day and night by patients in normal life.

The ultimate goal is to create a device that can check patients' blood day and night, during and between meals, and deliver insulin as required. The study found that the device performed better than a conventional pump, which delivers insulin at pre-set rates and which kept blood sugar levels around normal for 40 percent of the time compared with 60 percent for the artificial pancreas.

The above findings are particularly encouraging because the study included nights when the children went to bed after eating a large evening meal or having done exercise - both of which can affect blood sugar levels.