MIT researchers developed this noninvasive, shoebox-sized device that can measure blood glucose levels with Raman spectroscopy instead of needles. [Photo courtesy of MIT]
Many people with diabetes today use continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) to keep track of their glucose levels. Those devices still have a small, minimally invasive interstitial needle inserted into the body when applied and don’t exceed a wear time of 15 days. Some people with diabetes still use the traditional fingerstick method, requiring them to draw blood from their fingers several times per day to check their glucose.
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The MIT team may have found a more comfortable, noninvasive alternative using Raman spectroscopy. This technique reveals the chemical composition of tissues by shining near-infrared or visible light. The team centered its shoebox-sized device around this method to measure blood glucose levels without any needles.
The researchers tested their method on a healthy volunteer and found the measurements were similar to those obtained by a commercial CGM. While the device evaluated in this study remains too large to work as a wearable sensor, the researchers say they developed a wearable version now under evaluation in a small clinical study.
“For a long time, the fingerstick has been the standard method for measuring blood sugar, but nobody wants to prick their finger every day, multiple times a day. Naturally, many diabetic patients are under-testing their blood glucose levels, which can cause serious complications,” said Jeon Woong Kang, an MIT research scientist and the senior author of the study. “If we can make a noninvasive glucose monitor with high accuracy, then almost everyone with diabetes will benefit from this new technology.”
MIT postdoc Arianna Bresci served as lead author of the study, which appeared in the journal Analytical Chemistry. Other authors include Peter So, director of the MIT Laser Biomedical Research Center (LBRC) and an MIT professor of biological engineering and mechanical engineering; and Youngkyu Kim and Miyeon Jue of Apollon Inc., a biotechnology company based in South Korea.
More about the noninvasive glucose measuring technology
A noninvasive blood-glucose monitoring method developed at MIT could spare diabetes patients from frequent fingersticks and potentially replace traditional monitoring devices. [Image courtesy of Christine Daniloff/MIT]
The researchers obtained their first measurements using equipment around the size of a desktop printer, and for their latest study created a smaller device by analyzing just three bands in the Raman spectrum, which can typically contain around 1,000 bands. One band comes from glucose, plus two from background measurements. The approach enabled them to reduce the amount and cost of the equipment needed.
“By refraining from acquiring the whole spectrum, which has a lot of redundant information, we go down to three bands selected from about 1,000,” Bresci said. “With this new approach, we can change the components commonly used in Raman-based devices, and save space, time, and cost.”
Over a four-hour period, the team rested the arm of their healthy volunteer on top of the device. A near-infrared beam shone through a small glass window onto the skin to perform the measurement. Each measurement takes a little more than 30 seconds. The researchers took new readings every five minutes.
During the study, the volunteer consumed two 75 g glucose drinks to let the researchers monitor the changes in glucose concentration, observing similar levels of accuracy between their technology and two commercially available CGMs also worn by the subject.
Now, the researchers are testing an even smaller prototype that’s about the size of a cellphone. Next year, they plan to run a larger study with a local hospital to include people with diabetes. Ultimately, they hope to minimize the device even further, to about the size of a watch. They also want to ensure the device can obtain accurate readings from people with different skin tones.
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