Research: Tears being examined as a pain-free way to measure glucose levels

WASHINGTON — Scientists are reporting development and successful laboratory testing of an electrochemical sensor device that has the potential to measure blood-sugar levels from tears instead of blood — an advance that could save diabetes patients the discomfort of pricking their fingers for droplets of blood used in traditional blood-sugar tests.



Tests of their approach in laboratory rabbits, used as surrogates for humans in such experiments, showed that levels of glucose in tears track the amounts of glucose in the blood. "Thus, it may be possible to measure tear glucose levels multiple times per day to monitor blood glucose changes without the potential pain from the repeated invasive blood drawing method," stated Mark Meyerhoff, lead researcher.



Their report appears in the American Chemical Society's journal Analytical Chemistry.

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