Wireless Sugar Monitoring Device For Diabetes Passes Tests

A new implanted wireless glucose sensor could change the face of diabetes management forever. This glucose sensor has just passed some critical tests done in animals by American bioengineers.
These bioengineers have demonstrated that an implanted glucose sensor has great promise to transform how people with diabetes manage their condition from the old fashioned way of finger sticking and short-term, needle-like glucose sensors that have to be replaced every three to seven days.

One of the challenges that scientists have faced in developing an effective glucose sensor in the past, has been the issue that the sensor sits in tissue just below the surface of the skin and often causes "tissue encapsulation". This in return often causes "unpredictable fluctuations in the readings."

When these new scientifically tested, implanted glucose sensors were placed inside animals, the special devices worked continuously for more than a year and never showed signs of "tissue encapsulation" which has been seen in trials with other similar devices. This was a huge step in the right direction for the approval of this new diabetes management sensor.

Researchers and developers from the Department of Bioengineering at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), and San Diego based, GlySens Incorporated demonstrated how these implanted wireless glucose sensors could help in diabetes management in cows. They implantable sensor they put into the cows were, "capable of long-term monitoring of tissue glucose concentrations by wireless telemetry and ran successfully in two pigs for a total of 222 and 520 days respectively". This study was published online in the journal Science Translational Medicine on July 28, 2010.

Dr. David Gough, first author and bioengineering professor at UCSD and his team have high hopes that after human trials and approval from the Food and Drug Administration, the implanted wireless glucose sensor device may help people with diabetes management and make their lives and lifestyles much easier. Dr. Gough told the press, in regards to the results of the testing in cows, "That's a big step from a scientific point of view, and it's due to the sensor's unique oxygen detection scheme. If all goes well with the human clinical trials, we anticipate that in several years, this device could be purchased under prescription from a physician. We are moving toward something that will be automatic and quite unobtrusive. Others wouldn't even know if someone is a glucose sensor."

This implanted wireless glucose sensor will work continuously night and day and information can be sent to cellular phones or other devices. Dr. Gough stated, "There are parents with diabetic children who spend their nights worrying that their child in a nearby bedroom may go into nocturnal hypoglycemia." This continuous glucose sensor could trigger an alert if the level dropped too low in the night and eliminate this need to worry. Lastly, Dr. Gough stated that "if the device passes human trials, it could be implanted in patients in a simple outpatient procedure."

Source:

"Function of an Implanted Tissue Glucose Sensor for More than 1 Year in Animals."
David A. Gough, Lucas S. Kumosa, Timothy L. Routh, Joe T. Lin, and Joseph Y. Lucisano.
Sci Transl Med Vol. 2, Issue 42, p. 42ra53, published online 28 July 2010