Breathalyzer technology to help monitor diabetics' blood glucose

A novel hand-held, noninvasive monitoring device that uses multilayer nanotechnology to detect acetone has been shown to correlate with blood-glucose levels in the diabetics’ breath.

Ronny Priefer, Ph.D., of Western New England University, invented the multilayer technology using nanometer-thick films consisting of two polymers that react with acetone.

This crosslinks the polymers and alters the physicochemical nature of the film, which provides a quantification of the acetone and thus the blood-glucose levels.

Priefer said that breathalyzers are a growing field of study because of their potential to have a significant positive impact on patients’ quality of life and compliance with diabetes monitoring.

He said What makes their technology different is that it only accounts for acetone and doesn’t react with other components in the breath.

Priefer asserted that the breathalyzer we currently have is about the size of a book, but we’re working with an engineer, Dr. Michael Rust at Western New England University, to make it smaller, more similar to the size of a breathalyzer typically used to detect blood alcohol content levels.