As noted in Tech-On!, Sharp (Tokyo, Japan) has developed an optical sensor that quantifies the accumulation of advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs), which are protein saccharified in blood vessels. AGEs are correlated with blood glucose level; however, unlike blood glucose level, their measured values do not fluctuate much depending on, for example, the meal taken before the measurement.
When too much sugar is consumed in a daily diet, protein is saccharified and becomes incapable of functioning normally. This is called glycation and allegedly causes not only diabetes but dementia, cancers, high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis, etc. In other words, AGEs are the source of all kinds of diseases.
Autofluorescence-based
The new sensor applies near-UV light at a 365 nm wavelength light to finger veins and quantifies the accumulation of AGEs in the veins by measuring the AGEs' autofluorescence. Sharp is testing the sensor in cooperation with a university to develop applications and measure the effects of it, considering applying for approval of the Japanese government for medical use as necessary, the company said.
The company exhibited a prototype of the sensor at Semicon Japan 2014 (Dec. 3-5, 2014; Tokyo, Japan). The prototype can visualize the degree of aging of blood vessels, which cannot be measured by conventional blood-glucose-level sensors. This enables the detection of diabetes at an early stage. Sharp aims to commercialize the device in the second half of fiscal 2015, says Tech-On!.
