Comparative Study on Click Sounds Produced by Three Types of Prefilled Insulin Pen Devices (FlexPen^® ,SoloSTAR^® ,MirioPen^® ) on Dose Setting

Abstract

In this study,the usefulness of the click sound produced on setting the dose of the following 3 types of prefilled insulin pen devices were compared : FlexPen^® (Novo Nordisk Pharma) (FLX),SoloSTAR^® (Sanofi-Aventis) (SOL),and MirioPen^® (Eli Lilly Japan) (MIR).The click sound of FLX and MIR was evaluated highly (n=50)in the clinical evaluation,in which subjects were asked to listen to recordings of the clicks and say which were“easy to count”and“pleasant to hear”.In a frequency component analysis of the clicks,FLX and MIR tended to have a higher sound pressure level (dB) in frequencies that were easy to hear for subjects but SOL did not have this characteristic.The mean duration of the click sound of FLX was 1.25 times and 1.82 times longer than that of MIR and SOL,respectively,indicating that the click sound of FLX would be easier to recognize than that of MIR and SOL.Based on the above results,we concluded that the FLX injector would be the most useful as regards dose setting using the auditory sense and therefore could be recommended to elderly and visually impaired patients,who need to set doses by listening to click sounds.