Painless, Bloodless And Safe Glucose Sensing System For The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant Studies in the pediatric intensive care unit PICU have shown that hypoglycemia hyperglycemia as well as swings in blood glucose levels are strongly associated with higher morbidity and mortality However tight glucose control has not been proven as effective In fact hypoglycemia was found to be a real danger Thus there is a need for more careful study collection of more data using standardized methods over a larger cohort in the PICU However multiple painful blood withdrawals or an indwelling needle cause additional stress to both the young patients in the PICU their parents and caregivers Here we propose to develop a painless minimally invasive glucose sensing system designed especially for patients in the PICU Microneedles MNs between to m in length will be used to create microchannels in the outer layer of dead cells corneocytes on the skin A small biosensor patch containing a highly sensitive Kd M optical glucose biosensor will be placed over these microchannels to allow glucose to diffuse The rate of diffusion of glucose will then be measured using a handheld minifluorometer The device will be tested and optimized in vitro on model skin and on selected healthy subjects and patients in the PICU

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE The current method to monitor blood glucose levels in the pediatric intensive care unit requires painful withdrawal of blood every hour over many hours which adds to the stress of being in the hospital for these young patients Instead of bleeding we are proposing to use tiny needles to painlessly create small holes on the outer layer of dead cells on the skin A very sensitive glucose biosensor will then detect the small amount of glucose that diffuses through these tiny holes For this proposal we organized a group of scientists physicians and engineers to develop this painless glucose monitoring device that can be used in the pediatric intensive care unit