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Biotech Science

A Stylish Approach to Non-Invasive Glucose Testing 41

Posted by timothy from the sounds-fun-for-non-diabetics-too dept.
legolas writes "ABC News has a story on a new blood sugar monitoring tool being developed for diabetics by the University of Pittsburgh. Using special "photonic crystals" (materials that change colours in the presence of specific chemicals), Dr. Asher's group is developing contact lenses that change colour in response to the blood sugar level in the diabetic's tears. Instead of needles, the diabetic need only a mirror." Maybe the insulin can be stored there too.
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A Stylish Approach to Non-Invasive Glucose Testing More

A Stylish Approach to Non-Invasive Glucose Testing

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  • Yeah but, (Score:3, Funny)

    by GigsVT ( 208848 ) on Tuesday April 22, 2003 @08:56PM (#5786442) Journal
    Can you get a tattoo on your wrist of a snake eating its tail that will tell you when your quicksil... uh bloodsugar is low?

  • Wow... the future of contact lenses! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by SocialWorm ( 316263 ) on Tuesday April 22, 2003 @09:30PM (#5786593) Homepage
    I look forward to the day when contacts act as a heads-up display. They just keep on getting more and more high-tech, so that seems like the most obvious end result. Just today, I found out that Cibavision is marketing contact lenses to improve tennis performance [storysage.com].
  • I triple guarantee you, there is no glucose in anyone's blood! It is an American lie! Allah has condemned them, therefore everything they say must be a lie!

  • Needles? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by splattertrousers ( 35245 ) on Tuesday April 22, 2003 @11:11PM (#5787023) Homepage
    Instead of needles, the diabetic need only a mirror.

    Diabetics don't use needles to test their blood sugar. They use tiny pins that create a small drop of blood which gets absorbed by a small strip of paper coated with chemicals which gets read by a small machine.

    And it doesn't hurt. There's no pain involved in testing your blood sugar, other than the fact that it's a pain in the ass to have to do it all the time.

    (I know because I do it 6 to 10 times a day.)

    • Re:Needles? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by devphil ( 51341 ) on Tuesday April 22, 2003 @11:50PM (#5787142) Homepage
      And it doesn't hurt. There's no pain involved in testing your blood sugar, other than the fact that it's a pain in the ass to have to do it all the time.

      It hurts like a sonuvabitch.

      Actually, it's not the pinprick that hurts. It's the little scabs/scars on the fingertips that kill me later, when I'm typing. (Yet another bonus to being diabetic: minor flesh wounds take longer to heal.) As I code and sysadmin[*] for a living, little flashes of pain with every keystroke are a major downside.

      As soon as the hold-a-laser-sensor-to-your-skin glucose meters drop within my price range, I'm there. The contact lenses would be cool too ("he's unconscious and his eyes are turning purple, what the fuck does that mean?"), but I've never liked wearing contacts.

      [*] Please don't tell my mother I'm a sysadmin; she thinks I play piano in a whorehouse.

      • Does it like, not work if you pick some other part of your body to prick?

        Tim

        • Re:Needles? (Score:3, Interesting)

          by devphil ( 51341 )


          It works anywhere, with a few exceptions. All you need is a drop of typical blood. But it's typically very difficult to pierce the skin as easily and and with minimal damage (so to speak) as it is on the fingertips.

      • Re:Needles? (Score:2, Informative)

        by iawia ( 9172 )
        Try the dysetronic freestyle [disetronic-direct.com] meter. It allows you to get the blood from your lower arm (and other places) to you can spare your finger.
        This is possible because it need very little blood, and has a special 'pricker' that lets you put pressure on those spots so that a little blood comes out, even with shallow wounds.

        For me it's much more comfortable.
      • It hurts like a sonuvabitch, if you use your fingers. If you have a meter which allows you to draw blood from somewhere other than your fingers -- eg, from your arm -- then it doesn't need to be painful at all.

      • he's unconscious and his eyes are turning purple, what the fuck does that mean?

        Sometimes I think that I only read /. to find quotes to put in my fortunes file :-)

        Something good about using these contacts that I don't see mentioned here is that it would allow almost continuous monitoring. You could see how fast the blood sugar level rises and decays after you eat something. You could also see throughout the day whether the level is behaving like you think it should or if you need to have a little more f

    • doesn't hurt? Ever? Not good! (Score:4, Informative)

      by Tumbleweed ( 3706 ) on Wednesday April 23, 2003 @01:04AM (#5787363)
      Doesn't hurt? Ever? This could be bad. If you're lucky, your nerve endings aren't that dense, and thus it doesn't hurt, and/or maybe you're testing somewhere other than the tip of your finger (the commonly-advised place to do it by ignorant doctors & nurses).

      If you're _not_ lucky (and since you have Diabetes, you clearly are not) then you may have some degree of peripheral neuropathy (loss of feeling). If you haven't already, you should get yourself checked out by a real honest-to-gnu endocrinologist, not just a regular doctor. Back when I had insurance, I was able to make my endocrinologist my primary care provider, which worked out great.

      Back to the subject of testing pain, for those of you testing on the tip of your finger - cut that out! That's where some of the most dense collections of nerves live. Try it on the side of your finger (last segment) - works _much_ better in avoiding pain, but it's still luck of the draw - sometimes you'll hit a nerve, and there's nothing you can do about it. If you _never_ feel any pain when doing this, you may very well have a problem and should get it checked out ASAP.

      I'm also Diabetic, and have lost my father and best friend to Diabetes. I took a really great Diabetes management class right after I diagnosed myself (and had it confirmed by a doctor) at the Seattle branch of the Joslin Diabetes clinic. It was a 4 day class that my insurance company paid for. I learned things about Diabetes that my father never knew after 35 years of Diabetes, and several of my classmates were old people who had had it for even longer and didn't know this stuff. Extremely valuable information, and anyone who has Diabetes, even if you think you know what's what, should find out if a local hospital or clinic has such a program. It would have been more than worth it even if I had had to pay for it myself.

      It's not enough just to test your blood sugar now and then throughout the day, as it can rise and dip throughout the day between testing times, and you wouldn't know it if you only test during the same times of the day. What you need is an HbA1C test which will give you a sort of 'average'. Talk to your local endocrinologist. My local grocery store's drugstore actually offers HbA1C tests, now - weird. Also, test during different times of day, and vary measuring before and/or after meals, too. Find out what your body's doing! Think of it as a "level 3 diagnostic" if it makes you feel geekier. Plus carrying around another gadget to monitor your blood sugar makes you even geekier, yet. Too bad they don't make cool noises, but maybe a new 'case mod' craze can get started here. Overclock that glucose meter - instead of 20 seconds for a reading, you can do it in 10, w00t! ;)

      Also note, some people react differently to some foods than others do, so just because some food has a low # of carbohydrates doesn't necessary mean it's great for you, and vice-versa. Find out what YOUR body reacts well and badly to, and don't forget that eating JUST to keep your blood sugar low isn't enough - that would mean lots of meat which could adversely affect your health in other ways. I really pity vegetarian & Asian Diabetics. The poor Asian guy in my management class was so sad when he found out how awful rice is for Diabetics. He was completely flabbergasted. :(

      Okay, that's enough for now. You may return to your regularly-scheduled surfing.
      • . . . that would mean lots of meat which could adversely affect your health in other ways.

        Meat is not the problem. Carbs are bad; "trans fats" (hydrogenated fats) are awful. Protein and natural fats are your friend.

        I have a friend who's diabetic. She has lost 35 pounds in the last year on a low-carb diet and she now only needs one long-acting insulin shot per day (and her doc even lowered her dose of that) because her blood sugar has gotten so stable. In the process, her cholesterol and triglycerides ha
        • Meat is not the problem. Carbs are bad; "trans fats" (hydrogenated fats) are awful. Protein and natural fats are your friend.

          This is just so wrong on so many points that I am not really sure where to start.

          Meat is a problem FOR DIABETICS, not because of the protein, but because of the byproducts of the body breaking down the meat - mainly creatinine, but also others. Protein gives the same number of calories (actually KiloCalories...) as carbs on a gram for gram basis, which means the two actually break
          • Funny you should mention kidneys. My friend just got her blood test results back (creatinine, etc) and her numbers were normal.

            Her cholesterol is down to 220 (it was over 400 when she was eating more carbs and less meat). Her triglycerides are down to 150 (from about 800 when she was eating the "healthy" low-fat way). In short, her lipids numbers are the best they've ever been and her kidneys are doing just great.

            Parrot the "conventional wisdom" all you want, I can see the truth with my own eyes. Choleste
            • Funny you should mention kidneys. My friend just got her blood test results back (creatinine, etc) and her numbers were normal

              Good for her again. But having a normal creatinine level in her blood does not mean anything about her kidneys - except that they are managing to keep up with the demands being placed on them. It does NOT mean she is not damaging them or will not have problems later in life that could have been prevented through PROPER diet at this stage in her life.

              Parrot the "conventional wisdo
      • Doesn't hurt? Ever?

        I can feel it, but it doesn't hurt. And it doesn't hurt afterwards. But I only prick my ring finger and pinky on my non-dominant hand, and I don't use those fingers as much as the others.

        Try it on the side of your finger (last segment)

        I actually do it in the middle (laterally) of the finger, just above the top segment's joint. That part of the finger rarely hits the keyboard. My fingers are really skinny so there's not enough padding on the sides for me to prick the sides without p

      • I am also diabetic, and your advise about the HgA1c is correct and also not correct.

        What you need is the new continuous blood glucose monitor as HgA1c is a HISTORY, not a check of what is right now.

        Knowing what your blood sugar was 3 months ago (90 days is about the life of the blood cell that is used to check HgA1c) is invaluable in telling what your medications or diet regimen are doing or helping you make long term changes, but useless in knowing if you are having to much glucose or insulin RIGHT NOW.
        • > What you need is the new continuous blood glucose monitor as HgA1c is a HISTORY, not a check of what is right now.

          Uhm, that's what I said.

          > Knowing what your blood sugar was 3 months ago (90 days is about the life of the blood cell that is used to check HgA1c) is invaluable in telling what your medications or diet regimen are doing or helping you make long term changes, but useless in knowing if you are having to much glucose or insulin RIGHT NOW.

          That's why I said it should be used along WITH the
    • New high-tech, high-accuracy glucose monitors no longer use strips of paper coated with chemicals. My Bayer-made monitor has a little circuit board strip which measures the Glucose level in a tiny drop of blood (which it kinda 'sucks' in - pretty neat). Very cool, and much more accurate, and requires less blood.
      • Yes, these are great. Mine takes only 5 seconds, seems to be working well, and, the most important thing, I can hook it up to my computer :)

        Now if anybody would release a glucose monitor that would include a JVM or something, like those neato cell phones, I would be the first to get one. Talk about gadget addict. Unfortunatly, allowing users to tweak things doesn't seem to be a high priority in the medical industry...

      • Very cool? Well, I have Bayer-made Ascensia Dex 2. It's an improvement but I still would prefer not to prick my fingertips. It doesn't hurt that much but my fingertips harden and it gets more and more difficult to take the test. I take something like 4-8 tests a day.

        It seems that diabetes is becoming really common disease, and the treatment costs are huge. So there's a hope that more money will be directed at diabetes research in near future.
    • I guess I must be more sensative than you are. Granted, being TII, I only need to check once a day, but I wouldn't call it painless. Not a big deal, mind you, but it always hurts, or at least stings a little. Possibly, in a few more years (I've only been doing it for about a year now.) I won't notice it anymore, but for now, "almost painless" is more accurate.

  • A step backwards (Score:4, Insightful)

    by splattertrousers ( 35245 ) on Tuesday April 22, 2003 @11:15PM (#5787032) Homepage
    "The ideal is that it's on the bottom edge of the lens and the diabetic patient would look in a mirror and see a color and relate it to a color wheel to [determine the] concentration of glucose," says Ascher.

    Visually matching against a color wheel? This doesn't seem very accurate. Accuracy is key. The existing way seems much better.

  • touch my eyeball?! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Tumbleweed ( 3706 ) on Wednesday April 23, 2003 @01:10AM (#5787382)
    Are they out of their friggin' minds? I'd rather keep poking teeny tiny little holes in the sides of my fingers than TOUCH MY EYEBALL, thank you very much.

    In fact, I'd rather fight an Agent than touch my eyeball.

    Sheesh.
  • Maybe the insulin can be stored there too.

    I believe the 'medication delivery through eyes' is putting medication directly into your blood. Insulin is injected into fat, not blood.
    • Insulin is injected into fat, not blood.

      Insulin CAN be injected directly in to the blood stream - it just becomes _very_ fast acting. It is usually injected into the fatty pad or tissue because that slows the absorption to a managable level. In the hospital where I work we do, for specific reasons and conditions, and always on a doctors order and with oversite from the pharmacy, hang IVs with insulin in them.

      For routine home use, though, avoid injecting into the bloodstream. It is not a Good Thing!
  • I work in the Pitt chem department (for Dr. David Pratt) on the 6th floor. Sandy Asher's group is on the 7th floor, so we see him all the time. He is one of the most active researchers in the department. Every time we look, he's working on some new, really interesting project. It's nice to see that one of them has made it to the pages of Slashdot :-)

  • insulin delivery comment (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    While having a discussion a while back with a colleague involved in bio-med type stuff he pointed out a simple but often overlooked issue with insulin delivery systems. Any insulin delivery system that intends to provide more than a few doses worth of total insulin storage capacity CAN NEVER BE ALLOWED TO ACCIDENTALLY OVER-"SECRETE" it's store of insulin for the simple reason that it will kill the user. Therefore, intra-abdominal insulin storage pumps, etc. will likely never come to market. Even the externa

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