Diabetes is one of the top ten chronic diseases in the world. To date, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recorded that about 347 million people worldwide have been diagnosed with diabetes, and this number is expected to increase to 552 million by 2030. Therefore, continuous monitoring of blood glucose is extremely important in diabetes management to maintain the patient's glucose level, while the number of blood glucose measurements per day depends on the severity of each case. The NTC thermistor used in the glucose meter acts as a temperature detection and allows for more accurate extraction of blood glucose data.
The traditional method of finger pricking blood method is a routine method of monitoring blood sugar, using a lancet to draw blood samples and place them on an enzymatic test strip to generate a blood sugar level reading. Due to diabetes is known as a lifelong chronic disease, it is more convenient for diabetics to make their own blood sugar measurements. As a result, most diabetics experience pain except that expensive enzymatic test strip can no longer be reused, as they monitor blood glucose levels at least two times a day. To address this problem, the technology of blood glucose collection has been developing over the past few decades, constantly improving the performance of glucose meter, and now requires only a small amount of blood samples (about <1μl). Although improvements in blood collection techniques today help reduce pain, another problem arises, with long-term finger stabbing that can cause a small wound, which can lead to infection. So the researchers have begun a new research direction - non-invasive method.
Blood glucose measurement of non-invasive methods doesn’t involve blood extraction and the measurement of skin penetration through solid objects. In the ideal case, appropriate non-invasive blood glucose measurements can be performed as long as the following criteria are met:
1. The measuring body part must be temperature stable and temperature controllable
2. The measuring body part must contain measurable glucose concentrations
3. Glucose concentration at specific measuring body part must be kept in constant relationship with the blood
Several suitable measuring body parts that can be found in the human body are the skin, forearms, wrists, earlobes and fingertips. The non-invasive measurement method is called Metabolic Heat Conformation (MHC) Technology, MHC comes from the process of oxidation of glucose metabolism in human body. This method is a more accurate extraction of non-invasive blood glucose concentrations using NTC thermistor. The method also has strict requirements for ambient temperature to ensure that measurements are made under minimal environmental impact. Ambient temperature must be kept between 25~30℃ to avoid affecting the patient's body temperature. Because in cold environment, the body will preserve body temperature by reducing blood flow, and at ambient temperatures above 30 ℃, the body temperature will decrease, resulting in incorrect measurement.
To sum up, high sensitivity NTC thermistor are critical to detecting minor changes in human temperature throughout the measurement process. So NTC thermistor and thermoelectric detector are a better choice for high-sensitivity and high-reliability requirements. The NTC thermistor produced by EXSENSE Electronics Technology Co., Ltd. has good stability and fast response, which can provide a more stable detection environment in the blood glucose monitoring of glucose meter, which is an indispensable part of glucose meter.
