Abstract- Assessment of the Applicability of Terahertz Spectroscopic Breath Sensing towards Monitoring Type 1 Diabetic Mellitus

Jessica Rose Thomas
https://etd.ohiolink.edu/ap/10?0::NO:10:P10_ETD_SUBID:106873

Type 1 diabetes is a condition that cumulatively costs around $14.9 billion in medical expenses every year in the United States. Besides being costly, the monitoring of this disease is invasive, painful, and often embarrassing to the afflicted individual; blood and urine testing is currently the daily method of monitoring blood glucose and ketone levels in the body of type 1 diabetics. Though the use of these samples is standard, another avenue for possibly determining blood glucose has not been completely explored. With over 3000 chemicals reportedly found in exhaled human breath, biomarkers associated with this disorder and many of the complications caused by it may exist and could be utilized in lieu of blood and urine samples. To examine breath for these markers our lab employs Terahertz radiation. Unlike competing methods of gas testing, the high specificity, speed of testing, and small sample size that the Terahertz spectral range affords is ideal for the medical field. Presented here are both the spectral assignments and the most recent results of our investigation into the exhaled biomarkers of type 1 diabetics utilizing Terahertz spectroscopy.