Clinical Research Methods

Automated Glucose Clamp Procedures

ProSciento  is the only CRO in the US and one of only three centers worldwide with the Automated Glucose Clamp technology and expertise.

ProSciento’s Automated Glucose Clamp is a specialized approach that utilizes a closed-loop system in which the variable of inter-operator proficiency is removed. The Automated Glucose Clamp technology determines and infuses the required amount of exogenous glucose to maintain the target glucose level. A published algorithm calculates glucose requirements based on glucose measurements obtained minute-by-minute or at five-minute intervals. In this scenario, the operator is not required to make frequent judgments about the glucose infusion rate required to maintain the target glucose concentration and, thus, the potential for operator bias and inter-operator variability is largely eliminated. In contrast, the manual method most commonly employed for clinical research is prone to inconsistent results, inter-operator variability and requires frequent blood draws. Read more about automated verses manual glucose clamp procedures. 

ProSciento’s Automated Glucose Clamp technology, now in its second generation, is the result of having refined technical capabilities over nearly two decades of dedicated metabolic research.

Glucose clamp techniques include:

• Euglycemic glucose clamps assess time-action profiles and pharmacodynamics of insulins, insulin analogs and other diabetes drug candidates. Read more
• Hyperinsulinemic euglycemic glucose clamps assess insulin sensitivity. Read more
• Hypoglycemic clamps assess counter-regulatory responses to hypoglycemia and the pharmacodynamics of glucagon analogs. Read more
• Hyperglycemic glucose clamps assess insulin secretion characteristics or urinary glucose excretion dynamics.

Accuracy advantages include:

• Algorithm driven glucose infusion rates
• Blood glucose measurements in tight, consistent one or five-minute intervals
• Deviation from blood glucose target less than 5%
• Stable blood glucose level (50 to 550 mg/dl)

Throughput advantages include:

• Ultra long glucose clamp procedures of 36+ hours
• Ability to perform 15+ experiments simultaneously
• Clamp results immediately ready for data processing (no manual data entry)

ProSciento has a dedicated glucose clamping unit at its clinical research facility in Chula Vista, California, where its annual number of clamp experiments exceeds 1,000.