A new temporary tattoo developed for diabetes patients may be able to completely eliminate the need for diabetics to prick their fingers each day, according to a new study.
A team of nano engineers from the University of California in San Diego studied a group of non-diabetic patients between the ages of 20 and 40 who wore the tattoos before eating a sandwich and drinking a soda. After consuming the carb-filled meal, the team found that the tattoo recorded the spike in each patient's glucose levels as accurately as a traditional finger-stick device, reported The Atlantic.
Scientists have been searching for a pain-free way for patients to test their insulin levels for years, as many people find needles unpleasant and tend to avoid measuring their levels as often as they should.
The newly developed device, if approved by the Food and Drug Administration, will be a breakthough since it would be considered the first painless device to check blood sugar on a daily basis, reported The Atlantic.
The temporary tattoo that attaches to the arm contains electrodes printed on a thin, disposable paper.
"Presently the tattoo sensor can easily survive for a day," Amay Bandodkar, a researcher involved with the tattoo, said in a statement. "These are extremely inexpensive - a few cents - and hence can be replaced without much financial burden on the patient."
The tattoo remains a few steps away from providing the numeric value of glucose levels for the patient. At this point, the scientists have to remove and analyze the tattoo in order to retrieve its measurements, reported The Atlantic.
When the tattoo is complete, Bandodkar said the tattoo will have "Bluetooth capabilities to send this information directly to the patient's doctor in real-time or store data in the cloud," reported The Atlantic.
The University of California researchers hope the tattoo will eventually be used to monitor levels of other compounds in the blood - such as metabolites, medications, alcohol or illegal drugs.
The study was published in the journal Analytical Chemistry.
