Continuous ex vivo monitoring of glucose in blood and subcutaneous tissue fluid

A system for continuous simultaneous ex vivo monitoring of blood glucose (b.g.) and subcutaneous tissue fluid glucose (s.g.) is presented. The system is based on two portable devices: (1) a continuous ambulatory blood sampler with a miniaturized thin-film glucose sensor in the sampling line and (2) a s.g. monitoring device using open tissue perfusion and measurement of glucose and conductivity for the calculation of absolute s.g. concentration. B.g. and s.g. are measured extracorporeally in a continuous manner with both devices. The system was evaluated in six healthy volunteers during an intravenous and a consecutive oral glucose tolerance test over 6 hours