Glucose Concentration Measurement in Human Blood Plasma Solutions with Microwave Sensors

Abstract

Three microwave sensors are used to track the glucose level of different human blood plasma solutions. In this paper, the sensors are evaluated as glucose trackers in a context close to real human blood. Different plasma solutions sets were prepared from a human blood sample at several added glucose concentrations up to 10 wt%, adding also ascorbic acid and lactic acid at different concentrations. The experimental results for the different sensors/solutions combinations are presented in this work. The sensors show good performance and linearity as glucose level retrievers, although the sensitivities change as the rest of components vary. Different sensor behaviors depending upon the concentrations of glucose and other components are identified and characterized. The results obtained in terms of sensitivity are coherent with previous works, highlighting the contribution of glucose to the dielectric losses of the solution. The results are also consistent with the frequency evolution of the electromagnetic signature of glucose found in the literature, and are helpful for selecting frequency bands for sensing purposes and envisioning future approaches to the challenging measurement in real biological contexts. Discussion of the implications of the results and guidelines for further research and development of more accurate sensors is offered.

Visualization of microwave near-field distribution in sodium chloride and glucose aqueous solutions by a thermo-elastic optical indicator microscope

“…This method provides a novel approach for monitoring NaCl and glucose in biological liquids by using a CCD sensor capable of visualizing NaCl and glucose concentrations without scanning.The highly sensitive and stable sensing of electrolytes and biological solutions containing organic molecules has drawn widespread attention in recent years [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] . Using microwave measurement techniques, for example, extensive research has been done to develop non-contact and non-invasive monitoring of glucose concentration in blood and biological liquids in medicine [10][11][12][13][14][15] . In addition, microwave-based similar techniques have been developed and applied to determine electrolyte concentration in aqueous solutions such as NaCl, which play an essential role in living systems [16][17][18] , as well as chemical 19 , geological 20 , industrial processes 21 , and life science 22,23 .…”

Radioplasmonics: design of plasmonic milli-particles in air and absorbing media for antenna communication and human-body in-vivo applications.

“…These concentrations mean typical values for human doses [77]. The example was conceived since there currently exist several trials to deliver and monitor drugs and/or scan in-vivo tissues with RF devices [55,[78][79][80]. Remarkably, the success of the drug release can be estimated by comparing the spectra with the case of an empty core (violet line with down triangles in Figure 7).…”

“…It is not the purpose of this work to design precise RF devices for different applications but to show the tremendous possibilities that excitation of RP devices may allow in different host media. Specifically, several drugs can be used if their permittivity functions are known as insulin in diseases associated with diabetes [78,80]. Besides, this kind of device could be applied in other water applications like water desalinization or underwater communication.…”

Review of Non-Invasive Glucose Sensing Techniques: Optical, Electrical and Breath Acetone

“…A change in the glucose concentration will cause a change in the dielectric properties of the tissue and thus impedance, and is the input into the sensor circuit. Sensors include microstrip patch antennas [177], spiral microstrip resonator [178,179], open-loop microstrip resonator [180][181][182], split-ring resonators [1,183,184], patch resonators [172] and dielectric resonator antennas [185]. These sensors have different principles of operation, but they are based on the same idea of measuring changes in glucose concentration by measuring the reflected changes in amplitude and resonant frequency of sensors' response.…”

“…These output measurements reflect changes in the glucose concentration that correlate to the dielectric properties of tissue [186]. The dependency of glucose concentration to the quality factor of an open-loop resonator was recently investigated by measuring the Q factor for different glucose concentration in aqueous solutions [180], blood plasma solutions [181] and on 352 human tongues [182]. The latter study resulted in reliable glucose measurements in some of the human subjects.…”