Desarrollo de aplicación móvil para el mejoramiento de la técnica de control de carbohidratos en pacientes con diabetes Mellitus Tipo 1

Abstract

Diabetes Mellitus type 1 is a chronic autoimmune disease that is generally characterized by low or no insulin production, or a natural resistance to insulin, causing alterations in normal blood glucose levels. The latter can negatively affect the physical conditions of the patients who suffer from it, generating complications such as heart disease, nephropathy, retinopathy and neuropathy. In more chronic cases, the patient must have strict control of the food consumed and healthy habits to reduce the risks of complications related to T1DM. Said control of food consumption can be delimited by techniques that allow patients to characterize and identify the types of carbohydrates consumed, taking into account that carbohydrates are highly soluble and have a direct impact on blood glucose. the blood, being a directly proportional relationship between the amount of carbohydrates consumed with the milligrams of glucose per deciliter. In this practical case, the carbohydrate counting technique was chosen, which consists of a manual process of identifying CH in foods prior to consumption. This technique lies in an arithmetic process that consists of a sum of the carbohydrates that are generally obtained from the Nutritional Tables of foods. This process is already defined by different authors who establish a ratio and correction margin, which allow calculating the number of units of insulin that the patient must be administered.

Taking the above into account, it is proposed that a patient with T1DM can carry out carbohydrate counting in an assisted manner through a mobile application prototype, which allows them to have a more adjusted control of the medical formulation. This proposal is based mainly on the arithmetic errors that the patient may make during the mathematical counting process, causing possible glycemic peaks or valleys. The prototype was proposed as an easily accessible and quickly available tool, so that the patient can attend the counting technique without further complications. In addition, it has an information module based on primary sources, which will allow the patient to learn a little more about the carbohydrate counting process.