The Medtronic Enlite Sensor

This is from Nikos Filippou, who lives in Thessaloniki, Greece, where the Enlite sensor for Medtronic CGMs is available:

Some days ago I’ve had the chance to get on my hands my first Enlite sensor and the serter that comes with it. I will try to describe my experience of that new sensor till now. Please excuse my English as my mother language is Greek.

Enlite comes in a hard plastic box that is similar to a Quickset box. It does not need fridge, so I can store them at the same place with my other diabetes supplies.

The serter looks like a double in height quickserter but has only one button at the upper side.

The packing of the new sensor is much more sophisticated than the softsensor I used till now. The needle is hidden well and you cant see it or actually feel it at any stage of the insertion procedure.

When I unpack the enlite sensor I place it on a clean table and hold it with my two fingers while I place the serter on the top of the sensor. The serter is made in a way that does not let you make an error while placing the sensor in the serter. A clear click was heard when the sensor loaded. After that I remove the the first part of adhesive protector and place it on my body (used my tummy), to insert it.

Pressing the insertion button nothing happens. The insertion happens when you leave the insertion button. At that time I felt only a clap ( a soft punch) on my body and no feeling of a needle coming in me. I thought that I did something wrong but I continue the procedure as it was written in the guide. I kept the serter on place and count from 1 to 5 (5 seconds for the adhesive to stuck) before I repress the button and pull the serter away. The serter removed with the needle hidden in a plastic part. So, I ve never had the chance to see or feel the needle which was great as one of the scary part of placing the old sensors was to remove the needle from the body. It had worked like charm!

Then I removed carefully the second part of the adhesive protector and help, with my fingers, the rear part of the adhesive, which has the shape of the transmitter, to stuck well. Then I used one of the two special transparent adhesive that comes with every sensor to stabilize sensor in place. This adhesive looks like an IV 3000 with a orthogonal hole in the middle. When you place it it holds the frond part of the sensor to stay in your body (like the paper tapes we used), when the rear part stuck at the rear part of sensor’s adhesive leaving the sensor’s connection free at the orthogonal hole!

The glue they use at the new adhesives are much more strong than the one the previous adhesives had. There was no allergic reaction of the adhesives on my skin till now.

Then I placed the transmitter, the same way I always do and start the system on from my pump. I removed the third part of the sensor’s adhesive protector and cover the transmitter with the adhesive. This third part of the adhesive looks like a tale that when placed on the transmitter it keeps it stable and safe.

Because I plan to use that sensor as long as I can, I placed an IV-3000 on top of all these, just to be sure. This IV-3000 is not necessary by the guide.

The whole insertion procedure has nothing to do with what we did with the soft sensor. It is much more easier, painless and stuck the enlite sensor far more better than the old one. For me it was a totally different experience and this is why I tried to describe it as good as I can.

USING THE NEW SENSOR

The first difference I saw using the new enlite sensor was the Isig. Produced Isig was far more higher than any soft sensor’s I ever use at the five years with them. At the first calibration I’ ve had Isig 49,68 for BG 128!

At the first day of use, I found a decrease at enlite Isig’s power which fell down at the Isig of 29,92 for BG 102 and then stays around there all the days I use that sensor, till now (day 11).

Because of that Isig decrease, I restart the sensor on day 2 and did not give calibration for two hours to let system forget previous calibrations. After that restarting on day 2 the system was incredible accurate for the next 6 days. It was hand by hand with my Abbott’s freestyle lite BG meter I use at highs and lows with lag time arround 6 minutes between the SG and BG, if they showed different (but always close) results. When the results was different I waited for 6 minutes and had the same SG result as BG.

At day 7 when I recharge the transmitter and restart the sensor and had less problems as the system had not showed any Isig decrease or other problems. Now I’m writing this e-mail both my BG and SG are 124ml/dl and Isig is 35.74!

I’m amazed with the enlite accountancy, except the first day of use. It clearly has higher definition than the soft sensor and follows all my highs and lows very very close. My higher reading those days was BG 263 when SG was 257ml/dl, when my lower BG reading was 38, enlite SG was — because it does not appears values bellow 40.

I use high and low alerts (69-121), prediction alerts (30’ minutes) and rate alerts (fall 2.0/min, rice 1,5/min). I checked every single high or low alert I’ve got with mh BG meter and found that all alerts was accurate with the exception of the first day. In some of these alerts I found the 6 minutes lag time between the meter and SG.

The result was great for me till now. The adhesives are still well stacked no matter of the showers I ve got all these 11 days with the exception of the top IV-3000 which I replace it for 4 times after showers without harming the original adhesives. I plan to keep this first sensor as long as I can and no less than 21 days, just to see how it goes till it dies.

thanks for posting this.