A new diabetes breathalyzer allows people to have an early indication of whether they are at risk of developing diabetes.
Two years ago, 13 year old Lauren Barbiero barely weighed 70 pounds.
“I was kind of scared of myself. I wanted myself to look a little more like a living person, not like a dead ghost.”
Lauren’s mother Vivian couldn’t believe how she was dramatically changing right before her eyes. “Every time I would brush her hair after a shower there were clumps of hair were coming out. I guess her body was literally starving itself,” says Vivian Barbiero.
Standard tests confirmed that Lauren had diabetes, the disease in which the body does not produce, or is resistant to insulin. Insulin is a hormone produced in the pancreas which is needed to move sugar from the blood into the cells where it can be used as energy or stored for later use.
Without insulin, the cells must turn to fat for energy, and as a breakdown product, the cells give off substances called ketones.
Now, scientists at Mississippi State University have invented a diabetes breathalyzer test, which they hope will revolutionize diabetes screening.
John Plodenic is a researcher at Mississippi State University.
“One of our visions for how this diabetes breathalyzer can be used is to have one outside every McDonald’s in the mall, and let people come out, blow into it and get a signal. Depending on the result they can decide whether they need to go to a doctor,” explains John.
Acetone is one of the ketones produced when the body burns fat rather than sugar for energy. The presence of acetone in a person’s breath can indicate whether that person has diabetes.
“It is non-invasive, so to people who are scared about getting blood samples taken, it offers a different way of diagnosis,” says Plodenic.
And according to medical experts, diagnosing people early is a tremendous challenge. Dr. Robert Rapaport is a pediatric endocrinologist with Mount Sinai.
Dr. Rapaport says “Not enough people are getting screened.”
The diabetes breathalyzer uses a high end physics and light technology called ring-down spectroscopy. After a person blows into a tube, the gas goes into a chamber. Into that chamber a light is beamed. If there is a gas in the chamber, that will absorb the light and cause it to gradually fade or “ring down.” The fading of light is translated into a graph so it provides an exact, non-invasive and rapid means of detecting specific contaminants, even in breath.
Dr. Rapaport says any tool that can assist in early diagnosis would be of great value and could help save lives. “The complications of diabetes increase the risk of death and mobility. They include problems with the eyes, kidneys, cardiovascular system. It is known that diabetes results in greater risk of developing heart attacks, developing metabolic syndrome, high cholesterol.”
Lauren is back to her old self. And says she wants to see the diabetes breathalyzer make it to the marketplace.
“People who are afraid of shots, like I was in the beginning, won’t have to go through pin pricks. They’re going to be able to breath into the diabetes breathalyzer and it’s going to be a lot easier,” says Lauren.
The researchers at Mississippi State University are seeking assistance from medical experts to conduct tests on human subjects. They have applied for a patent with the U.S. patent office. Researcher John Plodenic says he also envisions the day when a small monitoring device can be mounted over a home-bound diabetes patient’s bed, recording medical data for telemetering back to a central service or to the patient’s physician.
For more information about diabetes, click here:
http://www.diabetes.org/home.jsp
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