New Smartphone Device To Detect Diabetes In Seconds
New
Delhi: A new device which is integrated into a smartphone can detect
diabetes in a few seconds from the saliva sample of a person, scientists
say.
An inexpensive, simple device, which is integrated into a smartphone that tests diabetes with saliva and without pain.
The
device detects a biological indicator of a possible risk of type II
diabetes in saliva and can be used in low-income populations,
researchers said.
What
makes this development unique is that it is adaptable to cellphones and
gives results in a few seconds, avoiding the annoying use of needles,
they said.
In
other words, it is a cartridge adaptable to the mobile phone that will
record whether a compound is present in saliva, which becomes visible if
the patient has diabetes.
“It’s
as simple as pregnancy tests, where the specific marker shows in a few
seconds,” said project coordinator Dr Marco Antonio Rite Palomares, from
Tec de Monterrey (Mexican University).
“We
wanted a device which could identify a biomarker in a sample of saliva,
and it had to emit fluorescent light so a cellphone camera could
records it,” said Palomares.
The
multidisciplinary team from Tec de Monterrey and University of Houston
developed the micro device that can be integrated into a cellphone and
where one can place a saliva sample showing the results through a
software.
Researchers considered using the camera phone to detect the marker in saliva, as the resolution is getting better each year.
Afterwards
they decided to make it visible through an enzymatic reaction where the
biomarker is fluorescent or emits light identifiable from the rest of
the compounds through a strategy that has been used in other areas of
technology and is now applied to biology
Regards,
E.R.Iyer
