The technology "has the potential to become the first needle-free
approach - and that includes avoiding completely a finger-stick
calibration - to monitor blood sugar levels over the course of a
day," Dr. Adelina Ilie from University of Bath, UK told Reuters
Health by email.
People with diabetes have to monitor their blood glucose level
regularly, and there is currently no way to do that without drawing
a drop of blood.
Ilie’s team has developed a device that can measure glucose in the
fluid just below the skin, called the "interstitial" fluid.
When tested in two healthy human volunteers, the device provided
glucose results that closely matched levels measured in the blood,
researchers reported in Nature Nanotechnology.
The researchers stress that the device needs further development
before it becomes a wearable, simple, blood-free way to measure
blood sugar levels.
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Nevertheless, Ilie said, "This finding is important, not only for
type 1 diabetics, who absolutely need to monitor their (blood sugar)
levels accurately and frequently every day, but also for the very
large, and rapidly increasing, numbers of type 2 diabetics for whom
a device such as ours would enable them to keep their blood sugar
concentration within the ‘normal’ range in a very convenient,
completely non-invasive, and user-friendly manner."

SOURCE: https://go.nature.com/2EBTs2K Nature Nanotechnology, online
April 9, 2018.
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