Patent ID: 8452356
Filing Date: 2013-05-28
Classification: A61B

Abstract:
1. A method of transdermally analyzing a physiological fluid with a minimally-invasive device for transdermally analyzing a physiological fluid, comprising: an array of optical microneedles and an optical connector, wherein the optical microneedles comprise mid infrared light-transmitting microneedles and corresponding light-receiving microneedles, and comprise tips adapted and oriented to penetrate skin and optically probe physiological fluid, and the optical microneedles and the connector are in an optical path configured to pass mid infrared light from a source through the connector, then through and out the tips of the light-transmitting microneedles, to then interact with the physiological fluid before entering the tips of, and passing through the light-receiving microneedles, and then through the connector to a spectrometer detector for optical signal analysis informative of the physiological fluid, the method comprising: penetrating a skin surface with the microneedle tips; transmitting light from a light source through the light-transmitting microneedles, through physiological fluid beneath the skin surface, through the light-receiving microneedles and to a detector which can discriminate the wavelength dependent transmission, either by using a wavelength discriminating source or spectrometer at the output end of the instrument; and analyzing the light incident at the detector as informative of the physiological fluid, and further comprising the step of adjusting the optical path length by selecting multiple, parallel, or series microneedles with or without different lengths to enhance the signal/noise performance of the microneedles for a given target analyte or interferent.