Diabetes patients need to monitor their glucose levels multiple times
a day by pricking their finger and evaluating their blood. But our future diabetes patients won’t have to stick themselves with a needle, they’ll just need to get this tattoo.
Nano-engineers from the University of California, San Diego have developed an ultra-thin temporary tattoo that can precisely and painlessly monitor the glucose levels of diabetics. This easy-to-wear temporary tattoo applies a mild electric shock to the patient's skin to measure blood glucose levels.
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| Jacobs School of Engineering/UC San Diego |
Nano-engineers from the University of California, San Diego have developed an ultra-thin temporary tattoo that can precisely and painlessly monitor the glucose levels of diabetics. This easy-to-wear temporary tattoo applies a mild electric shock to the patient's skin to measure blood glucose levels.
This amazing sensitive tattoo costs just a few cents and it lasts for a day, at a time. The main advantage of this tattoo over finger pricks that it works without taking blood for measure glucose levels. Tattoo will allow their levels to be continuously measured throughout the day and it means now they can manage and maintain their glucose levels more sensitively.
This device is made up of woven fabric electrodes printed out on rub-on tattoo paper and it started working by applying a mild electric current for to skin for 10 minutes. This forces sodium ions from the fluid between skin cells, which carry glucose, to flow towards the tattoo. A built-in sensor then measures the strength of the electrical charge produced by this glucose.
In a study of seven individuals including four males and three females, who wore
the tattoo while eating a carbohydrate-rich food in the lab, the device
(pictured) was just as effective at measuring glucose levels as the
traditional method, the finger stick monitor. The results are published online in Journal Analytical Chemistry.
Right now this tattoo doesn't provide a digital reading that diabetes patients would need to maintain their condition, but later on this user-friendly feature may be added.
Source: ScienceMag, EurekaAlert
In a press release Bandookar said," Presently the tattoo sensor can easily survive for a day. These are extremely inexpensive costs just a few cents and hence can be replaced without much financial burden on the patient. The readout instrument will also eventually have Bluetooth capabilities to send this information directly to the patient's doctor in real-time or store data in the cloud."
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