No-needle breakthrough could end pain of finger-prick test
PAINFUL finger-prick blood sugar tests could become a thing of the past after British scientists developed a way to measure glucose levels in sweat.
An adhesive patch measures blood sugar without piercing the skin by drawing glucose from fluid between cells across hair follicles.
University of Bath researchers said it could even be linked to a smartphone app, which warns diabetics when they must take action.
The new device promises to replace the current and unpopular method to test blood sugars used by millions of diabetics.
Nearly 3.7 million Britons have been diagnosed with diabetes and that figure is expected to increase to five million by 2025.
Professor Richard Guy of the university’s pharmacy and pharmacology department said: “A noninvasive – that is, needleless – method to monitor blood sugar has proven a difficult goal to attain.
“The monitor developed at Bath promises a truly calibration-free approach, an essential contribution in the fight to combat the everincreasing global incidence of diabetes.”
The patch taps into glucose in the skin through an array of miniature sensors which use a small electric current.
Glucose collects in tiny reservoirs where it is measured, with the ability to take readings every 10 to 15 minutes over several hours.
Researchers are now hoping the innovation can become a low-cost wearable sensor which can send regular measurements – and alerts – to a phone or a smartwatch.