14 DAY TRIAL // Blood sugar, or the glucose level in the blood, needs to be closely monitored, and this is normally done by examining droplets of blood drawn from finger pricks.
Not all that painful, in the grand scheme of things, and diabetics usually get used to the feel after a while. However, it's still not painless, and we can't discount the stress of having to visit a doctor constantly.
A team led by University of California have come up with a solution that will not eliminate the need to see a doctor, but will reduce the frequency of visits and eliminate the need for the finger pricks altogether.
That solution is this: a temporary tattoo. Tattoo applied to the skin and capable of detecting glucose levels based on very mild electrical currents produced by a precise electrode pattern. A built-in sensor can measure the strength of electrical charges produced by glucose.
Lab tests consisted of test subjects (non-diabetic) wearing the tattoos while eating a carbohydrate-rich meal. The tattoos detected a spike in glucose levels with the same accuracy level of finger-prick tests.
The team that developed the tattoo is based at the University of California, San Diego, and is led by grad student Amay Bandodkar.
Really impressive and convenient, no other way to describe this really. The journal Analytical Chemistry has the details.
