KR101947586B1 - Blood glucose monitoring device and blood glucose monitoring system using it - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a non-invasive blood glucose meter for measuring blood glucose level by sweat other than blood, and a blood glucose meter equipped with a sweating means which does not require a medicine during a sweat induction process and a blood glucose measurement system using the same. A sweating part configured to apply opposite polarities to each other; A housing which fixes the sweating part such that the two electrodes are exposed on one surface; And a blood glucose sensor inserted into the housing and brought into contact with a body fluid generated by the sweating part, thereby preventing the pain, infection and scarring caused by acupuncture, and affecting the normal sweat secretion operating structure of the skin Therefore, even if a small amount of sweat is secreted, the collected sweat can be efficiently collected so that the whole blood can be used for blood glucose measurement. Thus, it is possible to measure blood glucose with high accuracy, And a blood glucose measurement system using the blood glucose monitoring system and a blood glucose measurement system using the same.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a blood glucose measuring device,

The present invention relates to a blood glucose meter and a blood glucose measurement system using the blood glucose meter. More particularly, the present invention relates to a non-invasive blood glucose meter for measuring blood glucose using sweat other than blood, a blood glucose meter equipped with a sweating means, Measurement system.

Diabetes mellitus is an old disease that can be confirmed in ancient Egyptian records, but the history of measuring instruments that can measure blood sugar can be seen as the first blood glucose test, dextrostics, was launched on the market.

As shown in the photograph of FIG. 1, the blood glucose meter generally comprises a structure for measuring blood glucose in the blood using a blood sampled by taking a needle on a skin and collecting blood. However, in order to obtain a more accurate blood glucose measurement, frequent blood glucose measurement should be performed. In this case, since each blood collection must be wound with a needle, accurate measurement of blood sugar increases acupuncture pain.

Due to these problems, a blood glucose meter capable of blood sampling with a micro needle which minimizes the diameter of the needle is developed, and a non-invasive blood glucose meter is also being developed.

In the case of a blood glucose meter using a micro needle, pain may be less than that of a previous blood glucose meter. However, because of the use of a needle, it is possible that a scar due to frequent examination may remain and the problem of infection May occur.

The non-invasive blood glucose meter is provided with a sensor module and a wearable body composition analyzer having the sensor module as shown in FIG. 2, which is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-2016-0089718 (Publication date: 2016. 07.28) A sweat induction part 101 for collecting sweat secreted by stimulating the sweat gland control nerve by inserting drugs such as pilocarpine or acetylcholine which can induce the secretion of sweat in the sweat gland and inspecting the sugar level contained in sweat And a sweat collecting unit 103 are provided.

However, chemical stimulation to induce sweat secretion is too strong and can cause resistance to the user's skin. Therefore, the more frequent use of a non-invasive blood glucose meter in which the drug is used for more accurate glucose measurement, the more abnormal the sweating structure may occur in an increasingly larger area of skin.

Nevertheless, diabetic patients need more frequent blood glucose measurements, such as before and after meals and a certain period of time from mealtimes, to enable more accurate blood glucose control. That is, it is difficult to obtain accurate blood glucose measurement with several intermittent blood glucose measurements because the blood glucose level changes greatly as the satiety state and fasting state due to meal are crossed with time. Therefore, frequent blood glucose measurements should be made if necessary. However, currently developed blood glucose meters have a problem of pain, infections and scars in the case of invasive disease, and non-invasive blood glucose meters are likely to cause skin resistance and sweat secretion mechanism due to drug administration, .

Therefore, it is urgently required to develop a non-invasive blood glucose meter that does not cause pain and infectious problems but does not use drugs that can cause abnormalities to the skin.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-2016-0089718 (Publication date: 2016. 07.28)

Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the problems of the prior art, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a blood glucose meter in which a medicine that can cause abnormalities such as aftereffects or resistance to skin is not used, .

To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, there is provided a blood glucose meter comprising: a sweating portion having two electrodes spaced apart from each other and adapted to be applied with opposite polarities; a housing for fixing the sweating portion, And a blood glucose sensor which is inserted into the housing and is in contact with the body fluid generated by the sweating portion.

Preferably, the housing is provided with a heater close to one side of the housing, wherein the heater is preferably a microheat or Peltier element or a PTC element.

Also preferably, the blood glucose sensor is inserted into the housing detachably from the outside of the housing.

In the meantime, the housing is preferably provided with microchannels passing through the housing between two electrodes, and the blood glucose sensor is formed to be long in the longitudinal direction, and one end of the blood glucose sensor is inserted into the housing so as to be exposed to the microchannel.

Particularly preferably, an elastic pump is provided on the other surface of the housing to form a hollow communicating with the microchannel.

In this case, the elastic pump is provided with an exhaust port for connecting the inner hollow to the outside. Preferably, the exhaust port is provided with a one-way valve for passing air from the inside to the outside and shutting off the inflow of outside air into the inside.

At this time, on one side of the housing, a curved surface is formed between the two electrodes so as to be depressed toward the elastic pump, and the microchannels are disposed at the center of the curved surface.

An air permeable membrane is provided between the microchannel and the hollow inside the elastic pump, preferably for passing air through and for blocking the liquid.

The electrode is preferably a flexible electrode formed by uniformly dispersing conductive particles in a flexible resin.

The housing is preferably provided with a wear band for body wear.

The blood glucose measurement system according to the present invention is characterized in that it comprises a blood glucose meter according to any one of claims 1 to 10, a communication module provided in the blood glucose meter for transmitting blood glucose measurement data, A server for calculating and storing the received blood glucose measurement data, and a mobile terminal for receiving blood glucose measurement data from both the communication module and the calculation and storage module and for developing the image as an image.

Here, the calculation and storage module or the mobile terminal preferably calculates the blood glucose change rate and the blood glucose control agent taking time for a predetermined period of time using the received blood glucose measurement data and displays it on the terminal.

In the blood glucose meter according to the present invention, blood glucose measurement is performed not by blood sampling but by sugar contained in perspiration secreted by electrical stimulation using an electrode, so that pain, infection and scarring are not caused by acupuncture, It does not leave any after-effects on the skin because it does not use drugs that can affect the normal sweat gum action structure. Even if the sweat is secreted in a small amount, it can be used efficiently for blood glucose measurement. It is possible to perform frequent monitoring of blood glucose, which is important for a diabetic patient, without any aftereffects.

1 is a photograph showing a blood glucose measurement scene of a conventional blood collection method,
2 is a diagram showing a prior art,
3 is a front sectional view of a blood glucose meter according to the present invention,
FIG. 4 is a perspective plan view of a blood glucose meter according to the present invention,
5 is a view showing the structure of human skin,
6A to 6C are flowcharts showing the operation of the blood glucose meter according to the present invention,
7A is a conceptual diagram of a blood glucose meter and an electrode tissue according to the present invention,
FIG. 7B is a sequential enlargement of an electron micrograph of an electrode in the present invention,
FIG. 8 is a front sectional view showing a further embodiment of FIG. 3,
9 is a conceptual diagram showing a blood glucose measurement system according to the present invention,

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in FIG. 3, the present invention comprises a sweating portion made of an electrode, a housing 20 for fixing a sweating portion, and a blood glucose sensor 30 inserted into the housing 20.

The electrodes 10 constituting the sweating part are arranged such that two electrodes 10 to which polarities opposite to each other are applied are spaced apart from each other at regular intervals. Therefore, one of the two electrodes 10 corresponds to the anode and the other corresponds to the cathode. The two electrodes 10 are in contact with the skin and are energized with each other through the skin. At this time, an electric current flowing through the skin due to the electrode 10 performs a sweating action on the skin, i.e., a sweat inducing action.

There are two types of sweat glands that secrete sweat: one from Echlin and one from apocrine. In most people, except for the axillary, umbilicus and genital area, eczynin is distributed in the skin to secrete sweat.

As shown in Fig. 5, the normal sweat gland Echlin single line acts as an excretory organ for excretion of waste materials like the kidney. Particularly, wastes that are filtered from the blood of the capillary blood are sent to Ekkirin Line along with water, and sweat is produced, and sweat (D) is discharged through the pores of the skin surface. Therefore, the sweat contained secreted sugar contained in the blood, blood sugar can be measured by blood.

In order for sweat (D) to be released from the Achilles tendon, stimulation to the submotor nerve, which is the nerve that controls the Achilles tendon, is needed. In normal activity, in the sweat (D) secretion process, acetylcholine is first secreted and the submotor nerve is stimulated, and the stimulated nerve stimulates the secretory line. By using this principle, in the present invention, a submotor nerve is stimulated by the electric current of the electrode 10 instead of acetylcholine, so that the ecchine line secretes sweat (D).

The electrodes 10 are arranged at regular intervals as shown in the plan view of FIG. If the area of contact of the electrode 10 with the skin S is too small, it may give pain to the skin S, so that the electrode 10 has a constant area. This is because if the area of the electrode 10 is too small, the pain applied to the skin S in an electric stimulation state becomes worse. Therefore, as the electrode 10 is formed over a certain area and the skin S is adhered to the skin over the entire area, the pain applied to the skin S is eliminated and the skin S between the electrode 10 and the electrode 10, The current can be more reliably energized.

Therefore, the electrode 10 may be made of a flexible material so that the electrode 10 can be more closely adhered to the skin S. As shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B, the electrode 10 of the present invention preferably has a metal or carbon nanofiber particle inside a substrate 11 of a flexible material, A conductive flexible electrode in which the same conductive particles 12 are produced by homogeneous diffusion is adopted.

7A is a conceptual diagram showing the principle that the current flow between the conductive particles 12 can be continued without the conductive particles 12 being uniformly diffused into the resin. The inter-particle distance at which the conductive particles 12 can be energized can be determined by the density of the conductive particles 12 diffused in the resin 11. Strictly speaking, in this case, the conductive particles 12 distributed in the resin 11 are not in intimate contact with each other and are distributed at minute intervals as shown in FIG. 7B, The current flows along the path formed by the conductive particles 12 having the smallest distance between adjacent conductive particles 12 in the current flow direction as shown in Fig.

In addition, in the present invention, the electrode 10 constituting the sweating portion is provided with a heater (not shown) for causing sweating (D) to be secured by an amount required for blood glucose measurement, 40 may be provided.

3, the heater 40 is inserted into the housing 20, which will be described later, and is installed near the skin S side.

The heater 40 may be a microheat wire or a carbon film or PTC element or a Peltier element. In addition, the heater 40 may share the same power source as the electrode 10 constituting the sweating part, and circuits may be connected to each other.

The housing 20 is configured in a plate shape that is formed broadly in such a manner that it directly covers the skin S in FIG. The housing 20 fixes the sweating portion. The electrode 10 constituting the sweating portion is fixed closely to the skin S in FIG. 3 so as to be in contact with the skin S.

The blood glucose sensor 30 is coupled to the housing 20 in such a manner as to be inserted into the insertion port 23 formed on the right side of the housing 20 in Fig. At this time, as shown in FIG. 3, the housing 20 is formed so that the sweat (D) secreted from the surface of the skin (S) beneath the housing (20) The wall of the microchannel 22 is formed to communicate with the insertion port 23 into which the blood glucose sensor 30 is inserted so that one end of the blood glucose sensor 30 is connected to the collected sweat D Can be contacted.

However, the sweat (D) secreted from the skin (S) is secreted by the electric stimulation and thus the secretion amount is small. In order that most of the less secreted perspiration D can be used for blood glucose measurement, it is preferable to provide a means for sucking the secreted perspiration D so that the secreted perspiration D can be concentrated in the fine channel 22. [

As shown in FIG. 3, in the present invention, the elastic pump 50 may be installed on the upper part of the micro channel 22 so that the blood glucose measurement with high accuracy can be sufficiently performed even with the sweat D secreted in a small amount. have.

The elastic pump 50 has a hollow 52 formed therein to expand and contract the inner hollow 52 and restore the shape of the elastic hollow pump 50 to the original shape so that the space between the electrodes 10 and the skin S in the housing 20 So that the sweat (D) secreted from the skin (S) is concentrated in the microchannel (22).

Especially, when the sweat (D) is secreted by the electric stimulation as in the present invention, the secreted amount is as small as about 5.. In order to perform blood glucose measurement with high accuracy with such a small amount of sweat (D), it is necessary that the whole sweat (D) to be secreted is supplied to the blood glucose sensor (30).

For this purpose, the elastic pump 50 is configured such that the hollow 52 formed therein communicates with the space between the housing 20 and the skin S between the two electrodes 10 through the microchannel 22, The inside of the hollow 52 formed inside the elastic pump 50 is reshaped and the sweat D formed between the skin S and the housing 20 is sucked.

In particular, the elastic pump 50 may be provided with an exhaust port 53 and a one-way valve 54 on its side as shown in FIG. 6 (b). 6A, the air originally present in the hollow 52 inside the elastic pump 50 is blown in the direction of the skin S through the microchannel 22 when the elastic pump 50 is contracted as shown in FIG. 6A (b) But escape to the outside through the exhaust port 53. When the finger is released from the elastic pump 50, the elastic pump 50 returns to its original shape. At this time, in the process of recovering the volume of the inner hollow 52 of the elastic pump 50, So that only the sweat D formed between the skin S and the housing 20 is gathered in the microchannel 22 and collected.

6 (a) to 6 (c), the sweat D collection and the blood glucose measurement principle according to the action of the elastic pump 50 are expressed in order.

Fig. 6A is a view similar to Fig. 3, showing a state in which the electrode 10 stimulates the skin S nerve and the heater 40 starts to operate simultaneously with the electrode 10. Fig.

6A, the elastic pump 50 is contracted while the electrode 10 and the heater 40 are operated.

6B is a view showing a state in which the sweat D is swollen on the skin S by the action of the electrode 10 and the heater 40. Fig. In which the sweat D is gathered in the microchannel 22 due to the action of the elastic pump 50. As shown in Fig.

It is more preferable that the action of the elastic pump 50 is shown in FIG. 6A (b) between FIGS. 6B and 6D, but the elastic pump 50 and the one-way valve 54 (B) of Fig. 6 (a) is shown in front of (c) and (d) of Fig.

FIG. 6C shows a state in which the blood glucose sensor is separated from the housing 20 to replace the blood glucose sensor after the blood glucose measurement is performed, as shown in FIG. 6B (b).

Particularly, in the present invention, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 6A to 6C, 6E, 7A and 8, among the surfaces contacting the skin S in the housing 20, two electrodes 10 ) May be formed as a curved surface (24). The direction in which the curved surface 24 curves becomes a curved shape of an arch shape facing upward as shown in Fig.

The reason why the curved surface 24 is formed is that the area of the surface contacting the skin S in the housing 20 becomes larger when the surface is curved than when the surface is flat, Since the area of the skin S contacting the housing 20 is increased when the surface of the housing 20 between the electrodes 10 is curved, a larger amount of sweat D is formed in the microchannel 22) so that a large amount of sweat D can be secured for more accurate blood glucose measurement.

In the present invention, when the sweat D is concentrated in the microchannel 22 by the action of the elastic pump 50, the sweat D is absorbed by the large suction force of the elastic pump 50, The air permeable membrane 25 in which the gas can pass but the liquid does not pass is disposed between the inner hollow 52 and the microchannel 22 of the elastic pump 50 so that it can be prevented from being sucked into the elastic membrane 52, As shown in FIG.

That is, since all the sweat D must be used for the purpose of blood sugar measurement, the sweat D is absorbed into the hollow 52 inside the elastic pump 50, which is a loss of unnecessary sweat D, 50) may need to be cleaned more often.

Meanwhile, as shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 6C (e) and FIG. 8, the blood glucose sensor is formed with an elongated groove formed by a certain length from one end so that the sweat D can be absorbed quickly, It is possible to accelerate the absorption and to check the absorption amount of the sweat (D). The amount of absorption of sweat (D) is an important data for checking the amount of sweat (D) produced. In the case of diabetic patients, the production of sweat is considerably reduced due to peripheral nerve palsy, It can be used as data.

In the blood glucose meter according to the present invention, a wear band is connected to the housing 20 so that the blood glucose meter can be worn on the wrist as shown in FIG.

Although it is not shown in detail in FIG. 9 whether the blood glucose meter 1 according to the present invention is worn on the wrist, the blood glucose meter 1 according to the present invention is positioned at the upper part of the wrist, and the wear band is shown as being surrounded by the wrist have.

Hereinafter, a blood glucose measurement system according to the present invention will be described.

9, the blood glucose measurement system according to the present invention includes a blood glucose meter 1 configured as described above, a communication module 60 installed in the blood glucose meter 1 for transmitting blood glucose measurement data, A server 70 for calculating and storing blood glucose measurement data received from the module 60 and a mobile terminal 80 for receiving the blood glucose measurement data from the communication module 60 and the server 70 to develop the image as an image.

At this time, the mobile terminal 80 may be a smart phone, or may be a mobile smart device coupled to the blood glucose meter 1 itself.

Also, the blood glucose measurement values calculated by the blood glucose meter may be displayed on the mobile terminal 80 as graphs so that the blood glucose increase and decrease trends can be seen at a time according to the time zone as shown in FIG. 9, 70 may display an indication indicating the time of taking the blood glucose controlling drug according to the rate of change of blood sugar and the rate of change of blood sugar to the mobile terminal 80 so as to be displayed.

In this case, the remote server 70 may show the rate of change of blood sugar over a long period of time. In other words, it is possible to display the blood glucose measurement value at a specific time every day for a week, month, or quarter, thereby recommending that the amount of blood glucose controlling drug be changed or the amount of blood glucose control drug input may be changed. 80).

The remote server 70 is also connected to each hospital through a network so that the primary caregiver can inquire as needed. Thus, even if the patient does not visit the hospital, the primary caregiver can directly contact the patient and deliver the appropriate measures according to the rapid change in blood glucose. Also, data input to the mobile terminal 80 may be transmitted to the server 70 through the input function.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the inventions. It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art.

1: blood glucose meter according to the present invention
D: Sweat S: Skin
10: Electrode 11: Resin
12: conductive particle 20: housing
22: fine channel 23:
24: curved surface 25: air permeable membrane
30: blood glucose sensor 40: heater
50: elastic pump 52: hollow
53: exhaust port 54: one-way valve
60: communication module 70: server
80: mobile terminal

Claims (13)

A sweating part composed of two electrodes spaced apart from each other with different potentials;
A housing which fixes the sweating part such that the two electrodes are exposed on one surface; And
And a blood glucose sensor inserted into the housing and brought into contact with a body fluid generated by applying an electrode to the sweating portion,
A microchannel passing through the housing between the two electrodes is formed in the housing, an insertion port is formed through the side wall of the microchannel and one side of the housing, the blood glucose sensor is elongated in the longitudinal direction, One end of the blood glucose sensor is exposed to the microchannel by being inserted into the insertion port,
Wherein an elastic pump is provided on the other surface of the housing to form a hollow communicating with the microchannel. The method according to claim 1,
A heater is installed inside the housing in the vicinity of one side of the housing,
Wherein the heater is a carbon film or a microheat or Peltier element or a PTC element. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the blood glucose sensor is detachably inserted into the housing from the outside of the housing. delete delete The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the elastic pump is provided with an exhaust port for connecting the inner hollow to the outside, and the exhaust port is provided with a one-way valve for passing air from the inside to the outside and shutting off the introduction of the outside air into the inside. The method according to claim 6,
Wherein a curved surface is formed on one surface of the housing so as to be recessed toward the elastic pump between the two electrodes, and the microchannel is disposed at the center of the curved surface. The method according to claim 6,
Wherein an air permeable membrane is provided between the microchannel and the hollow inside the elastic pump to allow air to pass therethrough and to block the liquid. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the electrode is a flexible electrode formed by uniformly dispersing conductive particles in a flexible resin. The method according to claim 1,
And a wear band for wearing the body is connected to the housing. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the blood glucose sensor is provided with an elongated groove formed by a predetermined length from one end so that sweat can be absorbed quickly so that absorption of sweat can be promoted and amount of absorbed sweat can be checked. 11. A blood glucose measurement system using a blood glucose meter comprising the blood glucose meter according to any one of claims 1 to 3 and 6 to 11,
A blood glucose meter;
A communication module installed in the blood glucose meter for transmitting blood glucose measurement data;
A server for calculating and storing blood glucose measurement data received from the communication module; And
And a mobile terminal for receiving the blood glucose measurement data from the communication module and the server and for developing the image as an image. 13. The method of claim 12,
Wherein the server or the mobile terminal calculates the blood glucose change rate and the blood glucose control medication use time for a predetermined period of time using the received blood glucose measurement data, and emits the calculated blood glucose change rate and the blood glucose control medication use time to the mobile terminal.

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