This very interesting early study, from MIT and the University of Missouri School of Medicine, reports on the use of lasers for BG measurement:
Science Daily: Researchers show effectiveness of new noninvasive blood glucose test: Device uses laser technology to detect glucose levels under the skin, an alternative to painful pricking.
The device uses a technique called Raman spectroscopy to measure the chemical composition of skin and extract the amount of glucose out of other skin compartments. A fiberoptic cable attached to a wristband passes laser light onto the skin to detect different components in the skin, such as fat tissue, protein, collagen and glucose molecules. The shifts in wavelengths associated with glucose present in the blood creates a sort of molecular fingerprint that can be used to determine glucose levels.
Early results show that the noninvasive technology measures blood glucose levels as effectively as a finger prick test ā without drawing blood.
Right now, the device is large enough that it requires a clinical setting. But what an interesting way to go at measuring BG! Iād love to see it go further.
Of course, the interest in the method is not to avoid fingerpricks, as the journalist seems to believe, but to obtain a reliable way to continuously measure BG without needing a subcutaneous sensor.