Under the Skin Blood testing device

I apologise for not posting in a while, I have been very busy on duke of Edinburgh in Dartmoor where I woke up to 4 inches of snow! Also I’ve been having QQE’s in Biology and practice EMPA’s for chemistry which are the experimental qualification to each course, I’m sure many other hopeful medics will be doing them too! On BBC news there was information about the development of a blood testing device, it particularly caught my attention because could show a new type of blood monitoring for my sister who has Type 1 Diabetes.  

Scientists have developed a blood testing device which gives results immediately to a mobile phone using radio waves and Bluetooth technology and they hope can measure up to five substances at one time. It is about half an inch, and would be inserted by a needle to the abdominal, arms or legs into interstitial tissue. The device has three main parts which are five sensors, a radio transmitter and a power delivery system.  Each sensor’s surface is covered with an enzyme, but enzymes only have a limited life span so scientists are developing you methods to make them last as long as possible. Outside the body, a battery patch provides 1/10 watt of power, inductively coupled through the patient’s skin — no need to operate every time the battery needs changing.

 It will be particularly useful in measuring chronic illnesses for example diabetes and high cholesterol. The devices could send alerts even before symptoms emerge, and anticipate the need for medication. It could also be used for tracking the effects of some drugs like chemotherapy. Currently, oncologists use occasional blood tests to evaluate their patients’ tolerance to a particular treatment dosage. In these conditions, it is very difficult to determine the optimum dose.

This research is expected to be used on patients in 4 years’ time; they have already tested it in the laboratory and on animals and the next step is on intensive care patients who require frequent monitoring. It will be a huge advancement because it can provide a much higher level of care than traditional blood tests can show.

Sources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21841829

http://www.kurzweilai.net/under-the-skin-a-tiny-blood-testing-laboratory