Noninvasive monitoring of glucose concentration with optical coherence tomography

We have proposed a tested in tissue phantoms and in vivo a novel sensor based on optical coherence tomography (OCT) for noninvasive and continuous monitoring of blood glucose concentration. OCT images were obtained from pig and rabbit skin before and after glucose administration. Slopes of OCT signals decreased substantially (similar to 40% in tissues in vivo) and linearly with the increase of blood glucose concentration from 4 to 30 mM, typical for normal and diabetic subjects. Phantom studies demonstrated 1% accuracy of scattering-coefficient measurement. Our theoretical and experimental studies suggest that glucose concentration can potentially be measured noninvasively with high sensitivity and accuracy with OCT systems. (C) 2001 Optical Society of America.