V8 Supercar driver Jack Perkins, who has type 1 diabetes, launched the World’s Biggest Fingerprick. With MPs and supporters taking part, more than 170 people joined together to prick their finger and share a moment of life with type 1 diabetes on the steps of Parliament House.

Fingerpricks are an essential part of the painful daily routine that keeps people with type 1 diabetes alive.

Children and adults with type 1 diabetes, who number 30,000 in Victoria, need to check their blood glucose levels 4-6 times a day on average. This enables them to calculate their insulin dose, and when this complex juggling act works properly, it helps to reduce the risk of long term complications like blindness, stroke and kidney disease.

JDRF CEO Mike Wilson spoke at the event. “Victoria is a recognised centre of excellence for medical research and JDRF supports more than 20 projects in this state, which represents around 100 researchers. These dedicated scientists have recently broken new ground and there are now more therapies in human clinical trials than ever before.”

“As an autoimmune disease, type 1 diabetes is thought to be caused by a complex mixture of genetic and environmental factors – but not by an unhealthy diet or obesity. A cure for type 1 diabetes is needed urgently as the rate of new cases in children in this country is rising by 3% every year.”

Jack Perkins said “It was good to help out JDRF and show Members of Parliament and others what it’s like to do a finger prick,”

“As a JDRF Youth Ambassador I get to meet some great people and do some very different things. This event was all about showing what people with type 1 diabetes have to do at least six times a day for every day of their life.”

The Kids in the House also heard from National Health and Medical Research Council CEO Professor Warwick Anderson AM, who confirmed that type 1 diabetes is an important area of research for the federal government, with $157.4 million invested since 2000.

There is extensive research to show that tight blood glucose control is the best way to prevent the onset of type 1 diabetes complications such as kidney failure, retinopathy and heart disease. According to results from the Diabetes Complications and Control Trial, every one point reduction in HbA1C reduces the risk of long-term complications by approximately 40%.

Unfortunately, research has also shown that one of the hurdles to tight blood sugar control is the risk of hypoglycemia – both real and perceived.

Over the past 15 years the use of different insulin analogs as well as improvements in insulin pumps and blood glucose monitoring has had a positive impact on the ability of people to achieve blood sugar control targets. The rates of severe hypoglycemia, however, remain high and occurrence of such events is often followed by a decline of glycemic control due to fears of further hypoglycemic episodes.

In two multi-centre clinical trials – the first concentrating on people with bad glycemic control and the second on people who intensively manage their blood sugars – JDRF researchers have now demonstrated that an excellent solution to this problem is the use of a continuous glucose monitor, or CGM.

According to these trials, people using CGM spent two hours more time per day in the target blood sugar range of 3.9 to 10.0 mmol/l compared with people using fingerprick testing alone. They also found that CGM subjects had a significant overall improvement in HbA1C over time without an increased number of hypoglycemic attacks.

CGM devices are worn in a similar fashion to an insulin pump and provide both a real-time snapshot of glucose levels as well as trend information on whether glucose is moving up or down. They can also provide a warning when glucose is becoming too high or too low.

The continuous glucose monitor is a key component of the JDRF international Artificial Pancreas Program and these results take researchers one step closer to making the artificial pancreas a reality.

Diabetes Care published online 25th May 2009