The amount of insulin required to manage normal daily blood glucose fluctuations. Most people constantly produce insulin to manage the glucose fluctuations that occur during the day. In a person with diabetes, giving a constant low level amount of insulin via insulin pump mimics this normal phenomenon.

a steady trickle of low levels of insulin, provided either by long-acting insulins (Proptaphane, Humulin NPH, Lantus, Levemir etc) or, in a more sophisticated manner by insulin pumps i.e. they can be programmed to change the rate at different times throughout the day when it is known that more or less insulin is generally required. Also sometimes called background insulin. See insulin delivery methods for more.

In someone without diabetes, the pancreas delivers a small amount of insulin continuously, to cover the body’s non-food related insulin needs. With insulin pumps, this is mimicked with the basal rate. The basal rate is a continuous infusion of insulin and is programmed into the pump and delivered automatically as units/hour. This system of delivery closely matches pancreatic insulin delivery. Some people need more than one rate during a 24 hour time period; therefore, numerous different rates may be set in the pump. Each rate is called a Profile under the basal rate program. Profile 1 always starts at midnight and runs until a second profile is set or until midnight the next day.

a small amount of pain medicine running into the catheter tube all the time

a small amount of pain medicine running through the catheter into the epidural space all the time