USE OF THE MICRODIALYSIS TECHNIQUE IN THE MONITORING OF SUBCUTANEOUS TISSUE GLUCOSE-CONCENTRATION

For some time the subcutaneous (s.c.) tissue has been the target for c ontinuous glucose measurement. The microdialysis technique permits an extracellular region approach, which has been used for about two decad es for measuring various metabolites in dialysates obtained from diffe rent body regions. By connecting a s.c. implanted microdialysis probe to a flow chamber of an amperometric glucose sensor, the procedure of glucose sensing was transferred to ex vivo. Using this device it was p ossible to obtain, for up to 24 hours, s.c. tissue glucose profiles of healthy and diabetic people. The microdialysis theory, the calibratio n process and other microdialysis technique applications are discussed in this paper. Although the combination of the microdialysis techniqu e and amperometric glucose sensing requires certain technical equipmen t, the combination of microdialysis and glucose sensor seems to be a p romising approach to a continuously functioning glucose sensing system .