Noninvasive in vivo glucose sensing on human subjects using mid-infrared light

• Published in: Biomedical optics express Vol. 5; no. 7; pp. 2397 - 2404
• Main Authors: Liakat, Sabbir, Bors, Kevin A., Xu, Laura, Woods, Callie M., Doyle, Jessica, Gmachl, Claire F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Optical Society of America 01.07.2014
• Subjects: (140.5965) Semiconductor lasers, quantum cascade; (170.1470) Blood or tissue constituent monitoring; (300.6340) Spectroscopy, infrared
• ISSN: 2156-7085; 2156-7085
• DOI: 10.1364/BOE.5.002397

Mid-infrared quantum cascade laser spectroscopy is used to noninvasively predict blood glucose concentrations of three healthy human subjects in vivo. We utilize a hollow-core fiber based optical setup for light delivery and collection along with a broadly tunable quantum cascade laser to obtain spectra from human subjects and use standard chemo-metric techniques (namely partial least squares regression) for prediction analysis. Throughout a glucose concentration range of 80-160 mg/dL, we achieve clinically accurate predictions 84% of the time, on average. This work opens a new path to a noninvasive in vivo glucose sensor that would benefit the lives of hundreds of millions of diabetics worldwide.