An electrochemical sensor for the determination of glucose in tears
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Scientists have developed and successfully tested a new electrochemical sensor that is able to measure glucose level in tears, instead of blood. This development will allow to forget 350 million people suffering from diabetes, about injections, which are traditionally used in tests to obtain information about the level of glucose in the blood. The report is described in the journal Analytical Chemistry AC.
The author of the development Mark Meyerhoff and his colleagues say that about 5 percent of the world's population (and approximately 26 million people in the US alone) live with diabetes. Diabetes mellitus is a fast-growing health problem due to the acute global increase in obesity, which makes people susceptible to developing type 2 diabetes. People with diabetes should monitor their blood glucose levels several times a day to make sure they are within the safe range. Existing portable glucometers for determining glucose level require the presence of a drop of blood that patients receive by pricking a finger with a small pin or lancet. However, some patients are very sensitive to these regular injections. That is why a group of scientists began to develop a new device that would allow obtaining data on the level of sugar in the blood without pain, namely, using tears as material.
Experiments that were conducted on rabbits showed that the level of glucose in tears corresponds to the level of glucose in the blood. "Thus, this method can be used as a multiple measurement of glucose levels during the day without the potential pain of repeated injections," the researchers say.
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