New diabetes test device uses tears instead of blood

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New diabetes test device uses tears instead of blood



Long ago that researchers and physicians seeking a painless way to test the level of blood sugar. Scholars at the University of Michigan (USA) may be getting close to this discovery. They developed a sensor device that detects levels of sugar diluted in tears.

Diabetes is a disease that causes abnormal increases in blood sugar levels - is because it causes the pancreas stops producing insulin (which regulates blood glucose) or because it causes the body's cells become resistant to insulin , being unable to absorb the sugar. Depending on the case, a patient may need to check the level of this substance even ten times in a single day, since this rate can fluctuate greatly over 24 hours.

The demand for blood tests is not high. The idea of ??using tears first appeared in 1937, as a technique more comfortable for the patient. But the logistics of working with fluid that prevented progress.

"The main challenges are the evaporation, lower concentration of glucose in tears than in blood, lower volume - has much more blood than tear fluid - and not to stimulation of the eye, do not rub it," explains Jeffrey LaBelle, engineer involved in the study.

Dr. George Grunberger, American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, said that "this is an extremely hot. People have been trying to read the glucose through the skin, via meters connected to the ear lobe. There have been machines on the market, but they had to be removed for unreliability and poor reproducibility. "

As the basis for planning the care of diabetes is made from samples of blood glucose tests are sorely needed and it is important that they can be considered safe and effective. Therefore, despite recent advances in the tests with tears, may take some time until this technology is available.

The research was published in the journal Analytical Chemistry.