Purdue researchers creating a new way to test glucose

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - Purdue researchers may be close to a breakthrough in glucose testing. Tim Fisher, a professor of mechanical engineering, and a team of four other people, created a sensor able to detect glucose in fluids like tears and saliva.

So far all the research is being done at the Birck Nanotechnology Lab. Fisher said they've tested the sensor in fluids using interference that resemble what would be found in the body, and the sensor has responded successfully.

"What we've found is that sensor is not affected by these interferences," Fisher says. "Functionally, it has some good performances, as well as the raw ability to detect low concentrations of glucose."

"Anything they can develop to give patients better access and better awareness of what they're blood glucose is so that it can be better managed is going to be a good thing for patients with diabetes," Laurel Widmer, a specialist with the Franciscan Healthy Center Diabetes Education, said.

Widmer said she sees patients not testing their glucose levels the way they should.

Fisher isn't a medical doctor, but knows it is a task for some doctors to get their patients to test their glucose.

"Patient compliance is one of the biggest problems with treating diabetes today," Fisher said. "Patients just don't take their glucose levels as much as doctors ask them to. So if we can get to having better control then the side effects of diabetes will be muted a bit."

Critics are not confident with this research. They say the sensor will be unsuccessful because there is no way to correlate glucose from other fluids to blood glucose.

"There are still some serious issues with the approach," Fisher said. "We need to help develop the correlation between the glucose levels in the fluids we test, these non blood fluids, and the blood glucose levels, because that's really what affects the organs."

It's not known when the sensor will go into clinical trials, but Fisher said he hopes soon. He said he's already had requests from patients to be the first to use the sensor.