Detecting Diabetes with Light

Reported November 2007

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- In medicine, it’s not often you learn you have a disease even before symptoms occur. But an innovative new test for diabetes is promising to do just that.

Like millions of people in the United States, Wayne Smith has diabetes.

“Having diabetes is a very frustrating disease, of course, my glucose levels in my blood go up and down continuously," Smith told Ivanhoe.

Even more frightening, he was living with it for years before he even knew it.

“The tragic consequence of that is that you have many people in the United States who are undiagnosed and the diagnosis of the disease typically doesn’t occur until seven to nine years post onset, ”David Van Avermaete, CEO of Vera light, told Ivanhoe.

The standard test for diagnosing diabetes involves fasting, drinking a syrupy drink, drawing blood and then waiting for results.

“There’s a significant cost associated with the blood testing. Pain associated with drawing blood and access,” Mark Rohrscheib, M.D., assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of New Mexico, told Ivanhoe.

Hoping to diagnose the disease earlier, before complications occur, internists are testing a new optical screening device called “The Scout.”

The Scout shines different wavelengths of light under the arm to "light up" a protein in the skin called advanced glycation endproducts or AGEs, which indicates diabetes risk.

“The reality is that if you can find people in an early enough state, in a pre-diabetic state, headed for diabetes, the latest data shows you can actually prevent the disease in many cases,"

Even though Smith is managing his illness, he wishes he had been diagnosed early enough to stop it and that’s what doctors hope the scout will do for others.

The scout is expected to cost about the same as current testing methods. It is being tested in several hospitals across the country and could be on the market by next year.

The Optical Society of America contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

David VanAvermaete, CEO
VeraLight
(505) 272-7468
David.Vanavermaete@veralight.com

Optical Society of America
Washington, DC 20036-1023
(202) 223-8130
info@osa.org

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