Impairment of Continuous Insulin Delivery Therapy and Analysis from Graeco-Latin Square Design Model

The desire to deliver measured amount of insulin continuously to patients with type I diabetes, for glycemic control, has attracted a lot of attention. Continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion has seen some success in recent years. However, occlusion of insulin delivery may prevent the patient from receiving the prescribed dosage, with adverse consequence. An in vitro study of insulin delivery is performed, using different insulin pumps, insulin analogs and operating conditions. The aim is to identify incidences of occlusion due to bubble formation in the infusion line. A detailed statistical analysis was performed on the data collected to determine any significant differences and deviations in insulin delivery rates that might be due to factors such as: pump type, the set basal flow rate, insulin type, vibration, and possible insulin occlusion due to air bubble formation within the infusion line. Our findings from the Graeco-Latin Square design model show that there are statistical differences due to the devices, and statistical identifiable clusters are used to distinguish the devices. Such hierarchical models used to describe the analyses, include the flow rate, the pump types, and the activity level.