Diabetes monitoring device measures glucose in tear fluid

Current diabetes monitoring devices typically require patients to perform the painful task of pricking their finger to draw blood for a test sample — and many patients must do this several times each day.

However, the new device under development at ASU would enable people to draw tear fluid from their eyes to get a glucose-level test sample. According to the researchers developing the device, glucose in tear fluid may give an indication of glucose levels in the blood just as accurately as a test using a blood sample.

’This new technology might encourage patients to check their blood sugars more often, which could lead to better control of their diabetes by a simple touch to the eye,’ said Jeffrey LaBelle, a research professor in ASU’s School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering.

He is leading the ASU-Mayo research team that is developing the device along with Mayo Clinic physicians Curtiss Cook, an endocrinologist, and Dharmendra Patel, the chair of Mayo’s Department of Surgical Ophthalmology.