Spectroscopy Used to Measure Glucose Levels

Preliminary results of a multicenter trial show that a novel noninvasive blood glucose monitor employing near-infrared spectroscopy accurately measures glucose levels in people with diabetes.

The new monitor utilizes near-infrared (NIR) diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. In this application, NIR spectroscopy is the process of shining low-level light onto the forearm. A portion of the light, and the corresponding information within, is then reflected back to a detector and translated into blood glucose values. Analysis of date from the trial shows that the technology has been able to accurately provide forward-looking measurements of glucose levels for at least eight weeks after the device was calibrated to the user. The measurements were found to be highly accurate, with 94% of the information falling within the A and B ranges on the Clarke Error Grid, a universally accepted method of data qualification for self-monitoring glucose devices.

The monitor was developed by Instrumentation Metrics (Chandler, AZ, USA; www.imetricsinc.com). The company notes that using NIR technology to determine accurate glucose measurements required a complex integration of many disciplines, including tissue optics, spectroscopy, multivariate statistics, engineering, and analytical chemistry. "The data demonstrate that our accuracy in measuring blood glucose is within the acceptable industry standards and far exceeds the accuracy of any predecessor products,” said Stephen Monfre, Ph.D., vice president of research and development at Instrumentation Metrics.



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