Use of RGB Color Sensor in Colorimeter for better Clinical measurement of Blood Glucose

Abstract

The “Gold standard” for testing blood glucose in Colorimeters is the measurement of glucose in a plasma sample obtained from a vein. This method involves a chemical reaction activated by an enzyme called Glucose Oxidase. Most of the Colorimeters used for the Glucose measurement in Clinical laboratories perform well in the 100 – 400 mg/dl range of blood glucose. In Self Monitoring Blood Glucometers (SMBG), a drop of blood is placed on a small window in a test strip. Blood glucose acts as a reagent in a chemical reaction that produces a color change. The color change is detected by a reflectance-meter and reported as a glucose value. They too perform well in the range of 60 – 400 mg/dl range of Blood Glucose. Moreover, requirement of special purpose Dry slides is a big problem for the users of Glucometers. This paper aims to sandwich the technologies of Colorimeter and SMBG and interface the Clinical instrument with the Computer for a better clinical diagnostic result. The existing Colorimeter is upgraded with RGB Color sensor and Microcontroller and interfaced with the Computer to make Clinical measurement easier. Experimental results show that this modified Colorimeter can perform better than the existing colorimeter.

Keywords: Clinical Instruments, Blood Glucose measurement, Colorimeter, Color Sensor, Color measurement, hue and saturation

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