Patent ID: 7174199

Claim:
A monitoring system for measuring an analyte present in one or more samples in a biological system, said monitoring system comprising: a sampling device for providing one or more samples comprising said analyte, wherein said sampling device comprises one or more micro-needles; a sensing device comprising a sensing electrode, wherein said sensing electrode obtains a measurement signal from the analyte in each of said samples, and said measurement signal is specifically related to the analyte amount or concentration in the biological system; and one or more microprocessors in operative communication with the sensing device, wherein said one or more microprocessors comprise programming to control (i) operating said sensing device to provide said measurement signals, and (ii) applying one or more processes for selectively favoring analyte-specific signal components over signal components due to interfering species, said processes selected from the group consisting of (a) a selective electrochemical detection process that is performed during said obtaining, said process comprising contacting each of said samples with an electrochemical sensing electrode that is maintained at a potential less than about 0.6V, (b) a purge step that is performed before and/or after said obtaining, wherein said step substantially removes residual signal components from the sensing electrode, and (c) any combinations thereof.