Adaptive tuning of basal and bolus insulin to reduce postprandial hypoglycemia in a hybrid artificial pancreas

We introduce an adaptive learning algorithm to better adjust postprandial basal and pre-meal bolus insulin for reducing postprandial hypoglycemia in a hybrid artificial pancreas (AP). An AP uses a control algorithm and sensed glucose to automate the delivery of insulin to people with type 1 diabetes (T1D). A hybrid AP requires the person to dose insulin in advance of a meal. Insulin sensitivity is dynamic in people with T1D, making it challenging for an AP to maintain euglycemia. Adaptive approaches to meal dosing can help prevent postprandial hypoglycemia. An adaptive learning postprandial hypoglycemia-prevention algorithm (ALPHA) is introduced. One implementation of ALPHA adjusts the rate of postprandial insulin (ALPHA-BR) proportionally in response to prior postprandial episodes. This is achieved by an adaptive aggressiveness factor applied to postprandial basal insulin. The second implementation adaptively updates the pre-meal bolus insulin by changing the insulin-to-carbohydrate ratio (ALPHA-ICR), also proportionally in response to prior postprandial hypoglycemia. Both implementations were evaluated within an AP on an in-silico T1D virtual population of 99 subjects with circadian insulin sensitivity variations and 30% errors on meal estimations. Twenty real-world 4-day meal scenarios were given and glycemic outcomes were compared with an AP with no adaptation. Out of the 99 in-silico subjects, 23 of them experienced postprandial hypoglycemia leading to greater than 1% overall time in hypoglycemia. Of these 23 subjects, we evaluated the benefit of using ALPHA-BR and ALPHA-ICR to prevent postprandial hypoglycemia. ALPHA-BR yielded substantially fewer percent time in hypoglycemia compared to AP (0.54% vs 1.92%, p < 0.001) and fewer rescue carbs per day (0.36 vs. 1.29, p < 0.001). For the control algorithm evaluated, it yielded an average aggressiveness factor of 0.72 for reducing postprandial basal insulin. ALPHA-ICR slightly reduced time in hypoglycemia compared to AP (1.77% vs. 1.92%, p = 0.09). Incorporating adaptive meal dosing into an AP can help reduce postprandial hypoglycemia, and the reduction is primarily due to changes in postprandial insulin delivery rather than pre-meal bolus. Adapting postprandial insulin can lead to substantial reduction in postprandial hypoglycemia and the adaptive algorithm presented can be used both to tune an algorithm prior to a study and to adapt to individuals during real-time usage.