Photoacoustic Resonators for Non-Invasive Blood Glucose Detection Through Photoacoustic Spectroscopy: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is a prevalent disease with a rapidly increasing incidence projected worldwide, affecting both industrialized and developing regions. Effective diabetes management requires precise therapeutic strategies, primarily through self-monitoring of blood glucose levels to achieve tight glycemic control, thereby mitigating the risk of severe complications. In recent years, there have been significant advancements in non-invasive techniques for measuring blood glucose using photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS), as it shows great promise for the detection of glucose using the infrared region (e.g., MIR and NIR) of light. A critical aspect of this method is the detection of the photoacoustic signal generated from blood glucose, which needs to be amplified through a photoacoustic resonator (PAR). In this work, an overview of various types of PARs used for non-invasive glucose sensing is reviewed, highlighting their operating principle, design requirements, limitations, and potential improvements needed to enhance the analysis of photoacoustic signals. The motivation behind this review is to identify and discuss main parameters crucial to the efficient design of PARs used in non-invasive glucose detection, which will be helpful for furthering the basic understanding of this technology and achieving the highly sensitive PAR required for non-invasive glucose monitoring.