The future of blood monitoring?

[jimmyt1988]

Hi all,

Over christmas, diabetes becomes more difficult to control. I dive into food at all times of the day and as a type 1 diabetic, my fingers become pin cushions trying to keep my sugars under 8 and above 4.

I saw a film so long ago called "panic room". It had a simple idea of a blood monitor that could constantly keep you up to date with your blood sugars.

Imagine youre faced with a big delicious chocolate cake oozing with cream in the middle layers and youre thinking... hmm i wonder how much insulin i need to battle with this bad boy...

Imagine you eat it and have 5 units of insulin, look at youre wrist 20 minutes on and see ur sugars are rising, you can do a few more units of insulin to get it down. Sounds fantastic doesn't it!

At the moment, I might have waited an hour after to find i had got to 13-15 on my blood test and fretted.

Due to the complications and the time it has taken to come up with a cure for type 1 diabetes, surely creating a constant interface with your blood would almost be as good as having a cure!

The idea of it sounds very simple... It's just, how do we get the monitor to take blood samples every... 2 minutes (for example) without it being a pain in the a**e.

Any research along these lines that you know about... post here... I really think it is the future for diabetes. It would make our lives so bl**dy easy! And i honestly believe we could bring it out within a year or 2 if the research and development is pushed quick enough.

Here is the panic room version of the blood monitor:
medgadget.com/archives/2005/04/glucowatch_g2_b.html

We need a proper interface with the blood, rather than the glucose cell thingies.

 

[cugila]

This product was from way back, 2002....the article is from 2005. It has had mentions on here before but was not a success for technical reasons. The last I heard was this press release from 2008:

Animas Corporation, which is now a Johnson & Johnson company, purchased the intellectual property and all of the assets of the original manufacturer of the GlucoWatch G2 Biographer, Cygnus Inc. in Redwood City, California.

Animas Corporation is no longer selling the current model GlucoWatch G2 Biographer system. Animas continues to sell AutoSensors and provides customer support for the GlucoWatch system through July 31, 2008.

 

[PickledPepper]

What we need is a device built into a wrist watch.

Maybe it will have some 'micro pins' on its back that are plugged painlessly into your skin and measure that way.

The watch device should also be discreet (i.e. not any different to other digital watches) so as to avoid advertising your diabetes to the world.

However, if we had the development of technology that could measure bs levels without skin piercing somehow...and built that into a watch...that would be even more awesome.

Sorry to get all 'sci-fi' on you people!

Someone ring Casio and tell them to develop this already.

 

[sugarless sue]

Given the amount a wrist watch moves on your wrist just in everyday movement then it would rip your wrists to bits if it had any sort of invasive sensor, micro or not ! :shock:

 

[jopar]

These have been suppassed by the Continous Glucose Meter? (CGM)

They don't actually read blood glucose like a convential blood glucose meter, but the a senor is stuck under the skin into the fat layer and they read the serum to determin blood glucose levels. But this does come with a 20 minute lag, with the exception of the Dexcom 7plus which has apparently a 5 minute time lag..

There 3 main CGM's

The Dexcom 7, which has the quicket time lag
The Navigator
And Medtronics, called Guardian Real Time I think, it can be used as a stand alone or it can be used as part of their new Veo pump..

The watches were a nightmare, as they would alarm when an somebody sweated because the were warm, more so at night! Hence why they really didn't catch on..

 

[jimmyt1988]

Omg, these are amazing...

Can you find the purchase link... I can't find it anywhere:

http://www.abbottdiabetescare.co.uk/you ... -navigator

EDIT:

Just watched the video.. That's no good when i'm surfing or skateboarding.. YEOWCH lol...
Here's the video:

http://www.abbottdiabetescare.co.uk/_re ... igator.swf

EDIT:

Just watched the Guardian Real time...
Their site is awful but here is the slow and painful click/video thing they give you:

http://www.minimed.com/swf/guardian/ind ... =site_root

All looks a bit of a nuissance.

So glad there is people doing something. It's not ticking all the boxes yet.
Thanks for the input.

 

[jopar]

for the dexcom website http://www.advancedtherapeuticsuk.com/node/437

You have to phone the manufacturers directly to disguss the purchase.. But be warned they don't come cheap, it costs around £1000 pef CGM and the senors cost about £60-£80 each and only last a couple of days (but if you look at some of the american sites/forums you find some who can make them last a lot longer)

Dexcom do a month trial and if you don't like it and hand it back, they will return your money minus the cost of used senors!

CGM's are not currantly covered by NCIE guidelines, so it's difficult to get funding for the, as funding will have to be dealt/granted by your PCT, Special Case Panel!

 

[the_anticarb]

Sure at the moment these are expensive and not available on the NHS but 30 years ago no one (well hardly anyone) had a home testing kit and everyone had to use pee strips to test, now everyone has a home testing kit (even if they pay for it themselves, the kits not too expensive - ok not everyone gets prescribed the strips) and you can get a reading in less than 5 seconds so who knows what the next 30 years will bring?

 

[jonesy]

jopar.....

the dexcom sensors last 7 days.

 

[jonesy]

also, the sensors are more like £40-45.

 

[ally5555]

How strange - was going to post this later!

I have been to Dubai to a medical exhibition/conference and BS monitoring was everywhere.

Most of the non invasive machines seemed to operate on conductivity so I was told but there was no data available. I had my BG measured via a BP type cuff on my wrist but I know it was wrong - it measured my BS as 135mg ( old units!) but I had it done 5 mins before and it was 99!

I also had a bs done using a korean machine - but the blood was taken using a laser! Did not hurt at all and 5 mins later there was no mark on my finger.

Another company was also showing a machine that measures glucose conductivity using an ear peace! Yet no more evidence or info but there is work being done!

Allyx

 

[Patch]

I like the idea of BG reactive tattoo ink. Not the most accurate, I know.

[bn]BUT COOOOOOOL![/b]

 

[Angusc]

theres a laser blood glucose monitor being developed at the moment https://www.engineering.leeds.ac.uk/faculty/news/2015/non-invasive-diabetes-monitor.shtml