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Item #3 Item Revisited:

ADA: Noninvasive Blood Glucose Monitor Tested in Diabetics

Coming soon or just another pipe dream? 

ADA: Unlike currently available blood glucose monitors, which require finger prick or other invasive testing for calibration one or more times daily, a new blood glucose monitor presented at the American Diabetes Association 62nd Scientific Sessions in San Francisco, California, is completely noninvasive.

"The tool is based on occlusion technology where the cessation of blood flow in the finger triggers a change over time of the optical characteristics of blood," write Ohad Cohen, from Chaim Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, Israel, and colleagues. "Increase of glucose concentration reduces the refractive index mismatch, which in turn reduces the scattering coefficient. This phenomenon is utilized in a clinically applicable apparatus to measure blood glucose levels."

During hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemic clamp studies in 5 men with type 1 diabetes, insulin was infused at a constant rate, and stepped hypoglycemia was achieved by varying glucose infusion. The Roche Reflectron glucometer measured arterial blood glucose in parallel with 140 noninvasive readings, with values ranging from 40 to 270 mg/dL. Blood glucose levels obtained by the two methods showed a high degree of correlation (r=0.91) and mean error less than 10%.

"The excellent match [with arterial blood glucose measurements] prove the reliability of this novel non-invasive glucose measuring technology that is currently ready for large scale evaluation," the authors write. Orsense Ltd., in Rehovot, Israel, developed this blood glucose monitor. ADA Annual Meeting: Abstract 485-P. June 15, 2002. 

See our archived feature on all the current noninvasive monitors at  Feature 72