20-million Americans suffer from diabetes, but they often don't know it for years until they get severe complications like blindness or kidney disease.
Now, a quick, painless test could get more patients to get tested sooner.
Shirley Loo has two siblings with diabetes, so she thinks before she eats "you can lose a limb. You can die of diabetes. You can go blind with it."
She avoids sweets... reads labels ... and is taking part in a study looking at a new painless, bloodless diabetes test.
This machine could replace the traditional diabetes testing method of fasting, drinking a sweet glucose solution and taking a blood test.
"It did take a couple of hours while I was here for the whole test."
Bbut the Vera-light scout system has patients in and out in a flash.
It uses fluorescent light to non-invasively measure the effects of high glucose levels in the forearm's connective tissue.
"We've been able to identify those biochemical changes that may reflect diabetes without the need of sticking the patient or drawing blood or sending samples off to a certified laboratory."
The machine shines a light onto the skin's surface and the layers of tissue immediately below.
It measures how much light bounces back in very specific wavelengths.
"We then compare the scout measure and the overnight fasting with glucose and found that the scout measure is as accurate, if not better."
Some doctors believe the test will be the future of diabetes detection!
Shirley hopes the pain-free device will get others to get tested sooner.
The scout is only for initial diabetes detection, not daily blood glucose testing.
Traditional diabetes detection can take about two hours, but the scout system only takes about three minutes to produce a result.
Scout measurements can be made any time of the day because fasting is not required.
Full Article.
Medical Breakthrough -- Painless Diabetes Test
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