It is a portable, battery-operated device that uses a laser to pierce the skin, offering patients another almost painless means of drawing blood for glucose testing. Finally, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and colleagues in Pennsylvania, California, Texas, and Israel have conducted the first human trials on a new, painless noninvasive way to measure glucose levels through ultrasound. Study results were published in the March issue of Nature Medicine. Researchers hope that the new technique, which uses ultrasound to monitor glucose levels, can one day replace blood tests to measure other things as well, such as cholesterol and bilirubin. Although tests were conducted using an ultrasound machine typically found in a hospital, researchers have developed a handheld device that patients will be able to use at home.
Scientists hope to study the method on a larger group as soon as next year.