科学家正研发可检测血糖的隐形眼镜
When it comes to keeping your blood sugar in check, people with diabetes have limited options. Medical researchers have been searching for a noninvasive alternative to the self-administered fingerprick test, or a continuous monitor with a sensor worn under the skin. Now a team of South Korean researchers has a solution: a contact lens that keeps tabs on the glucose in your tears. The research team has prototyped and tested their device on rabbits, and report that it causes no adverse reactions. Moreover, it's soft and flexible, with only a few small rigid components. It contains neither brittle nor bulky components that could block the vision or harm the eye. The wearer has to look into a mirror to see the glucose level. It sounds bulky, but the components inside the lens -- even the rigid parts, such as the silicon pads in the glucose monitor -- are only one hundredth the thickness of the lens itself. There may be some way to go before contact lenses of this kind are ready for use by humans, but this proof of concept shows that it could be only a matter of time (and more hard work by scientists). |