Description:
Project ID: D2010-12
Background
Diabetes mellitus is a disease in which an individual has difficulty regulating their blood glucose levels, in which extremely low or high glucose concentrations can occur. Normal physiological blood glucose ranges are generally between 80-120 mg/dL; however, diabetics commonly have blood concentrations from 50-500 mg/dL if not properly treated. The key to treating diabetes through therapy is to frequently monitor blood glucose concentrations, such that corrective actions can be taken. Currently, invasive approaches involve pain and increased risk that requires the skin barrier to be broken in order to obtain a blood sample for analysis. The high cost of implementing optical coherence tomography (OCT), a noninvasive method to detect glucose concentration opens an avenue for a novel, simple, and a low-cost alternative to the current state of art.
Invention Description
Researchers at the University of Toledo have developed a novel patented iris based noninvasive ocular sensing method to detect glucose concentration. The approach is based on an ocular imaging technique involving the analysis of the iris features. The anterior chamber of the eye contains the clear fluid known as the aqueous humor which has glucose levels proportional to those of blood. Changes in glucose concentration will result in small variations in the optical refractive index of the fluid. The novel approach reported a range of physiological glucose concentrations between 0 to 1000 mg/dL. The novel invention demonstrates potential for the eventual development of a system for use in the noninvasive estimation of blood glucose concentration.
Applications
-A noninvasive method for measuring blood glucose that is fast, painless, and cost effective.
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IP Status: U.S. Patent # 8,845,100 Non-Invasive Ocular Analyte System
U.S. Patent # 9,456,772 Non-Invasive Ocular Analyte System
Publication: Webb, Anthony & Cameron, Brent. (2011). Noninvasive in vivo Glucose Sensing Using an Iris Based Technique. Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE. 7906. 10.1117/12.875160.
Webb, Anthony & Cameron, Brent. (2010). Multivariate Image Processing Technique for Noninvasive Glucose Sensing. Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE. 7572. 10.1117/12.841911.
Keywords: Noninvasive sensing, diabetes, glucose sensing, optical coherence tomography, human eye anatomy, image processing, multivariate image sensing, aqueous humor, iris pattern, optical imaging, blood glucose concentration