An Approach to Avoid Hypoglycemia: A Model for Mealtime Insulin Dose Calculation for Diabetic People

Abstract

Background: It has been observed that the number of diabetes patients has steadily increased over the past decades. Particularly, Type 1 diabetics are required to use insulin therapy to maintain their blood glucose levels. Technological advancements in the production of insulin pumps and monitoring devices have aided diabetics in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. A patient with type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (DM) requires insulin therapy with profound roots. Most diabetics require a minimum of two daily insulin injections, with dosage adjustments dependent on self-monitoring of blood glucose levels.

Aim: However, it is frequently observed that determining insulin dose is a somewhat perplexing and not always appropriate task. When the incorrect insulin dose is administered, hypoglycemia, which is a blood glucose level below 60 mg/dL, frequently occurs. This condition places the patient at significant risk and should therefore not be ignored.

Method: This paper proposes an FCCMID (Food Carbohydrate Count Mealtime Insulin Dose) model for calculating the Mealtime Insulin Dose (MID) based on insulin sensitivity, insulin carbohydrate ratio, and automatic calculation of carbohydrate count based on food intake using the Indian Food Carbohydrate Lookup Table.

Conclusion: Target Blood Glucose Monitoring value attained by injecting MID (FCCMID) value of insulin is very close to the desired target Blood Glucose Monitoring Value (assumed to be 100 mg/l), thereby preventing Hypoglycemia. The observed average target blood glucose level is 110 mg/l, which is very near to the optimal 100 mg/l value.