Checking Your Blood Sugar – Without Checking Your Blood

As every patient with diabetes knows, pricking your finger to check your blood sugar is a dreaded daily ritual. Not only is it a painful reminder of the disease itself, it’s currently the only way to consistently and accurately monitor your blood sugar. It’s especially tough on children and leads to much anxiety–beyond having the condition itself.

A “fingerstick”, as it is known by many healthcare professionals and patients alike–involves using a sharp lancet to puncture the skin of your fingertip, followed by placement of a drop of blood on a special instrument (glucometer) that can read your glucose level, usually in under a minute or so.

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Now it seems that a research group from the University of Leeds in England has tackled the problem of how to measure blood sugar noninvasively—without having to actually puncture the skin at all!

The new technique, according to the researchers, is based on the interaction of ions in a special nano-engineered silica-type glass device which fluoresce in response to infrared light waves.

Embedded in the special silica glass are ions which produce special infrared fluorescent light waves in response to light from certain laser wavelengths. The wavelength produced is related the level of the blood sugar in the blood vessels near the skin when a finger is placed onto a special glass device.

And based on their research, it appears that the period of time that fluorescence occurs is related to the concentration of glucose in the superficial blood vessels or capillaries in the skin.

In fact, according to a recent study from the Leeds Institute of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine, the results from the device were comparable to results achieved using a standard glucometer with finger pricking.

“This device if proven to be effective, could be an important alternative to finger-pricking at some point in the future,” said Rifka C. Schulman, M.D., F.A.C.E., C.N.S.C., Director of Inpatient Diabetes, Long Island Jewish Medical Center, New Hyde Park, NY. “Having an accurate glucose level is of utmost importance when dosing insulin and large trials would be needed to prove the accuracy of this device before it could be recommended in practice in place of finger-sticks.”

One potential utility may be as a wearable for continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). This could allow people to continuously monitor their glucose levels without the need for actually wearing an implant, which is the only viable alternative today.

As things stand now, the current methods used to monitor glucose include finger pricking, involving disposable sample strips, and invasive continuous glucose monitors, utilizing implanted sensors that require replacement.

With development of a noninvasive and wearable monitor, the economic savings for healthcare providers and hospital systems could be significant, since it could pave the way for a less expensive alternative to both of the standard methods used to monitor glucose.

“Unlike the traditional method, this new non-invasive technology can constantly monitor blood glucose levels, said Professor Gin Jose, Faculty of Engineering Staff at University of Leeds in a recent press release.

“As well as being a replacement for finger-prick testing,” Jose explains, “this technology opens up the potential for people with diabetes to receive continuous readings, meaning they are instantly alerted when intervention is needed.”

“This will allow people to self-regulate and minimize emergency hospital treatment. This wearable device would then be just one step from a product which sends alerts to smart phones or readings directly to doctors, allowing them to profile how a person is managing their diabetes over time,” added Professor Jose.

Diabetes has become one of the most critical health problems in the world today, with the need to both diagnose and monitor diabetics in a cost efficient and more efficient manner.

Nearly 380 million adults globally are estimated to have diabetes, with the potential to climb to nearly 600 million persons by 2035–close to 1 in 10 persons throughout the world. Estimated healthcare costs from a 2007 study (direct and indirect) related to treating diabetes in the U.S. alone totaled 218 billion dollars, with global estimates now exceeding 500 billion dollars.

“It goes without saying an accurate non-invasive (optical) glucose measurement would have a stunning impact on improving diabetic’s lives and reducing the World’s healthcare costs, said Allan Stephan, CEO of Seattle-based Stratos, a proven leader in product engineering, optics and design.

Glucosense diagnostics was recently spun off by Netscientific, a healthcare firm working with the University of Leeds researchers, and is now developing this novel technology for commercial use, with the important goal of rapid development a product for everyday use.

Source: Forbes