Ophthalmic Glucose Monitoring System: A Novel Diagnostic Approach for Diabetes

Diabetes is a disease in which levels of blood glucose, also called blood sugar, are above normal. Normally, after a meal, the body breaks food down into glucose, which the blood carries to cells throughout the body. Cells use insulin, a hormone made in the pancreas, to help them convert blood glucose into energy. People develop diabetes because the pancreas does not make enough insulin or because the cells in the muscles, liver, and fat do not use insulin properly, or both. As a result, the amount of glucose in the blood increases while the cells are starved of energy. Over the years, high blood glucose, also called hyperglycaemia, damages nerves and blood vessels, which can lead to complications such as heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, blindness, nerve problems, gum infections, and amputation. Diabetic patients are generally advised to check their blood glucose every day. Since the all current existing conventional methods of home blood glucose tests are painful, intimidating, laborious, and expensive, since they require obtaining a blood sample by pricking a fingertip with a needle or lancet. Thus it is necessary to develop a non-invasive blood glucose measurement method which could provide fast, painless, and convenient glucose monitoring to diabetic patients. The ophthalmic glucose monitoring system is a non-invasive method of determination of blood glucose and consists of wearable contact lenses which are equipped with sensors which detect glucose level in the lachrymal fluid which can be correlated with blood glucose level.