FEASIBILITY OF MEASURING BLOOD-GLUCOSE CONCENTRATION BY NEAR-INFRAREDRAMAN-SPECTROSCOPY

We report the determinations of glucose concentration in human whole b lood samples made using near-infrared Raman spectroscopy. Raman spectr a of blood samples with above-physiological levels of glucose were acq uired for 5 min through the wall of a cuvette via fiber optics. Partia l least squares analysis was used to predict glucose concentrations in the samples. A root mean squared prediction error of 3.6 mM glucose w as achieved with a correlation coefficient of 0.99 between reference a nd predicted values. This result is the first step in evaluating the p otential of near-infrared Raman spectroscopy to perform blood glucose measurements with clinical accuracy. The is capable of measuring the c oncentration of other Raman-active blood constituents; as an example, bicarbonate was also measured. The method could eventually be useful f or direct measurement of tissue analytes. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B. V.