New Hand Held Breathalyzer 'Monitors Blood Glucose' in Diabetics

Diabetes patients who prick themselves on a daily basis to monitor their blood-glucose levels may soon have a less painful option.

Researchers at Western New England University have developed a hand-held breathalyzer that detects a marker of blood glucose levels may be useful for patients with diabetes.

Dr. Ronny Priefer of Western New England University and colleagues presented the first functional breathalyzer for diabetes at the Nov. 13, 2013, session of the 2013 American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas.

"You hear that one of the common complaints among the diabetic community is the needle prick, even though it's minimally invasive, it's still an invasive technology," said Dr. Priefer. "And even knowing you're only going to feel a little prick, if it's six to seven times a day it's going to decrease compliance and a lot of complications come from a lack of compliance with this well-established technology, the blood glucose test."

The researchers found that the two polymers could be cross-linked by acetone vapor only, which altered the physicochemical nature of the film. A hand-held device was developed that is currently the size of a book, but is being further miniaturized to the size of breathalyzers typically used to analyze blood alcohol levels.

Though similar technologies are being developed, Priefer's version of the tool is cheaper and more effective - particularly because it can compensate for humidity in a persons' breath, which many other tools are unable to do.

Two clinics will perform controlled testing with patients in late 2014 to early 2015.