Raman spectroscopy as a promising tool for noninvasive point-of-care glucose monitoring

Abstract

Background: Self-monitoring of glucose is important for managing diabetes. Noninvasive glucose monitors are not yet available, but patients would benefit highly from such a device. Methods: We present results that may lead to a novel, point-of-care noninvasive system to measure blood glucose based on Raman spectroscopy. A hospitalized cohort of 111 subjects was measured using a custom-made Raman spectrometer system. Blood glucose reference samples were used to correlate Raman data to glucose levels, using advanced preprocessing and analysis algorithms. Results: A correlation coefficient (R2) of .83 was found correlating independent Raman-based predictions on reference blood glucose for the full cohort. Stratification of the cohort in gender-specific groups raised correlation levels to .88 (females) and .94 (males). Glucose could be measured noninvasively with average errors as low as 0.9 mM. Conclusion: We conclude that this novel system shows promising results for the advance of noninvasive, point-of-care glucose monitoring.