TIME-RESOLVED NON-INVASIVE OPTOMETRIC DEVICE FOR DETECTING DIABETES
First Claim
1. A method for non-invasively detecting diabetes in a patient;
- comprising;
directing a pulse of excitation light at a region of the patient'"'"'s skin;
exciting one or more AGE products in the skin;
wherein excitation of said one or more AGE products generates a fluorescence signal;
detecting the fluorescence signal generated by the one or more AGE products; and
measuring the fluorescence signal as a function of time.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A time-resolved fluorescence device is described for the detection and diagnosis of diabetes in a noninvasive manner. The device uses an ultra-short excitation pulse of light in the UV, infrared or visible range that comprises of a repetition of nanosecond pulses. The excitation pulse is directed incident onto a strategically selected area of the patient body such as the forearm, the feet, and the palm. This light interacts with the different layers of the skin. The absorbed light excites the AGEs in the skin, which in turn generate a fluorescence signal, which is collected by a detector. A processor is coupled to the detector to measure the transient fluorescence intensity decay of the skin in terms of lifetimes, and the contribution of individual fluorophores to the overall fluorescence signal. The nature and location of the fluorophores may be identified and a medical diagnostics may be performed.
31 Citations
46 Claims
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1. A method for non-invasively detecting diabetes in a patient;
- comprising;
directing a pulse of excitation light at a region of the patient'"'"'s skin;
exciting one or more AGE products in the skin;
wherein excitation of said one or more AGE products generates a fluorescence signal;
detecting the fluorescence signal generated by the one or more AGE products; and
measuring the fluorescence signal as a function of time. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
- comprising;
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15. An apparatus for detecting diabetes in a patient;
- comprising;
an excitation source configured to direct electromagnetic excitation energy at a region of the patient'"'"'s skin;
a detector directed at the region of skin;
the detector configured to receive a fluorescence signal resulting from the excitation energy at the patient'"'"'s skin; and
a processor configured to measure intensity decay of the fluorescence signal as a function of time to diagnose the diabetic condition of the patient. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
- comprising;
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26. A method for performing time-resolved fluorescence measurements to diagnose the diabetic condition of a patient;
- comprising;
directing an excitation pulse at a region of the patient'"'"'s skin;
exciting a portion of the patient'"'"'s skin as a result of the excitation pulse at the region to generate a fluorescence signal indicative of the composition of the patient'"'"'s skin;
detecting the fluorescence signal generated by the excitation pulse; and
measuring a transient intensity decay of the fluorescence signal to determine the diabetic condition of the patient. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
- comprising;
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41. A method of non-invasively pre-screening a patient for diabetes, comprising:
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directing an excitation pulse at a region of the patient'"'"'s skin to generate a fluorescence signal indicative of the composition of the patient'"'"'s skin;
measuring a transient intensity decay of the fluorescence signal; and
comparing the measured transient intensity decay to a reference transient intensity decay value to diagnose the diabetic condition of the patient. - View Dependent Claims (42, 43, 44, 45, 46)
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Specification