Researchers claim a non-invasive, bloodless diabetes screening
device can diagnose more patients than traditional blood testing
methods.

The ‘Scout’ device, developed by VeraLight of Albuquerque, New
Mexico, was able to identify nearly 30 per cent more patients
than the faster plasma glucose (FPG) test and 17 per cent more
patients than the A1C test. It measures so-called advanced
glycation endproducts (AGE) skin biomarkers known to be
associated with diabetes.

According to the World Health Organisation, 50 per cent of
people with diabetes are not identified until they are 5-to-9
years into the disease. By this stage, often-irreversible
complications will have occurred. The researchers said bloodless
screening of diabetes-linked skin biomarkers could be a major
tool to manage the global epidemic and its complications,
especially in high-risk individuals.

The product of VeraLight's proprietary SAGE (Spectroscopic
Advanced Glycation Endproducts) detection technology, Scout is a
portable, desktop system weighing about 4.5kg. After the subject
places the palm side of their forearm onto the system, the
device shines various wavelengths of light onto the skin that
causes the AGE to emit a fluorescent light signature that
indicates diabetes risk.

The instrument optically calibrates for skin pigmentation so
that performance is not diminished by skin coloration. A
specially designed fibre-optic probe couples the excitation
light to the subject and relays resulting skin fluorescence to a
detection module. The system's software uses multivariate
statistical techniques that are applied to the emitted light
spectra to obtain a diabetes risk score. Total measurement time
is about a minute.

The device is slated to be available from mid-2008, initially in
the United States and later into Europe.

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