UC Irvine researchers have developed a non-invasive breath test to measure the blood sugar levels of type-1 diabetes patients. The test is based on the findings that children with type-1 diabetes exhale significantly higher concentrations of methyl nitrates when they are hyperglycemic.

The Rowland-Blake group analyzed the children's breath samples for more than 100 gases at parts-per-trillion levels and found methyl nitrate exhaled concentrations to be increased as much as 10 times more in diabetic children during hyperglycemia than when they had normal glucose levels. The methyl nitrate concentrations corresponded with the children's glucose levels - the higher the glucose, the higher the exhaled methyl nitrates.

This method promises to be a non-invasive alternative to current blood sugar monitoring which involves skin pricks to draw a small blood sample. The study results will appear this week in the early online version of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Source: UCI