Variability of electrochemical skin conductance for screening diabetes mellitus

• Published in: Biomedical engineering letters Vol. 9; no. 2; pp. 267 - 274
• Main Authors: Kim, Soochan, Cho, Junghee, Ku, Boncho, Jun, Minho, Kim, Gahye, Yoo, Horyong, Park, Sangsoo, Kim, Jaeuk U.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Korea The Korean Society of Medical and Biological Engineering 01.05.2019; Springer Nature B.V; 대한의용생체공학회
• Subjects: Biological and Medical Physics; Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering; Biomedicine; Biophysics; Body mass index; Body size; Conductance; Diabetes; Diabetes mellitus; Diabetes mellitus (non-insulin dependent); Engineering; Glucose; Health and safety screening; Level (quantity); Medical and Radiation Physics; Original; Original Article; Resistance; Sex; 의공학; Noninvasive diagnosis; Oral glucose tolerance test; Electrochemical skin conductance (ESC); Diabetes
• ISSN: 2093-9868; 2093-985X; 2093-985X
• DOI: 10.1007/s13534-019-00111-1

Electrochemical skin conductance (ESC) has been suggested as a noninvasive diabetic screening tool. We examined the relevance of ESC method for screening type 2 diabetes. A meal tolerance test (MTT) was conducted for 40 diabetic and 42 control subjects stratified by age, sex and body mass index (BMI). The glucose levels and ESC were measured before the MTT and every 30 min after meal intake up to 120 min. There was no correlation between the blood glucose level and ESC (r = 0.249) or ESC variability (ESCV) (r = − 0.173). ESC (ESCV) was higher (lower) in diabetic patients than in normal control ( p  = 0.02 for ESC and p  = 0.06 for ESCV). Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed that the area under the curve (AUC) values of the ESC and ESCV were 0.654 and 0.691, respectively. The novel variable, ESCV, showed 5.7% higher AUC than ESC. Contrary to some previous reports, ESC values in diabetic patients was higher than in age, sex and BMI matched control group. In our study, ESC or ESCV showed a marginal accuracy to be used as a screening tool for diabetes mellitus.