New Blood Sugar Sensor Test

Researchers have reported the testing of an electrochemical sensor device that has the potential to measure blood sugar levels from tears instead of blood. Their report appears in ACS' journal Analytical Chemistry. Mark Meyerhoff and colleagues explain that about 5 percent of the world's population (and about 26 million people in the U.S. alone) have diabetes. The disease is a fast-growing public health problem because of a sharp global increase in obesity, which makes people susceptible to developing type 2 diabetes. People with diabetes must monitor their blood glucose levels several times a day to make sure they are within a safe range. Current handheld glucose meters require a drop of blood, which patients draw by pricking their fingers with a small pin or lancet. However, some patients regard that pinprick as painful enough to discourage regular testing. That's why Meyerhoff's team is working to develop a new, pain-free device that can use tear glucose levels as an accurate reflection of blood sugar levels.

Tests of their approach in laboratory rabbits, used as surrogates for humans in such experiments, showed that levels of glucose in tears track the amounts of glucose in the blood. "Thus, it may be possible to measure tear glucose levels multiple times per day to monitor blood glucose changes without the potential pain from the repeated invasive blood drawing method," say the researchers.

Source-Eurekalert