28] Portable continuous blood glucose analyzer

Abstract

Publisher Summary Blood glucose measurements are important in the treatment of diabetic patients, where pump infusion or pancreas transplantations demand careful supervision. Even in the treatment of type II diabetes, great improvements could be made with continuous measurement of blood glucose. In other clinical applications as well, the continuous measurement of glucose has become more important. In open-heart surgery large doses of insulin are administered to improve the condition of the heart. Continuous measurement of the glucose level is necessary to prevent the surgical patient from lapsing into hypoglycemia. To facilitate the taking of these measurements, an automatic analyzing system is introduced. This chapter discusses the general principles of the analyzer system. The advantages of a system like this are that it is easy to handle, it has a short response time, and it can be checked or recalibrated during the measurements. These features allow the physician to get much more information from the investigation and also to make it safer. However, it is important that the tubings connected to the patient are not obstructed as this will cause deviations from expected values.