Blood cholesterol reading system

2021: Announcement of a device reading blood cholesterol through the skin

At the end of November 2021, for people with coronary heart disease, an apparatus is presented that reads the level of cholesterol in the blood through the visualization of the skin of the patient's hand. The new system was developed by specialists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Science and Technology of China. According to the developers, funds for the commercial implementation of the project have already been found, and the product is preparing to enter the market.

Clinicians begin by using an alcohol tampon to clean the palm skin on the patient's undominating arm, as its skin is softer and easier to read than the skin of the more commonly used dominant arm. If this is right-handed, then it is necessary to clean the left palm of the patient's hand with an alcohol tampon. Then they stick a plastic ring with an adhesive base on the cleaned area, after which they force the patient to put his hand on the scanner so that the ring aligns with the lens on the device.

Presented is a device that reads the level of cholesterol in the blood through the skin

By analyzing how the skin absorbs and scatters light, the scanner determines the standard spectral signature of the skin. Then, a special chemical is added to the space inside the ring so that it covers the skin. After the excess reagent is removed, the skin is re-scanned. The chemical causes cholesterol contained in skin fat to fluoresce, changing the spectral signature of the skin. By analyzing the differences between the standard and altered signatures, one can determine the level of cholesterol in the patient's skin, which corresponds to the level of cholesterol in the blood. The technology proved to be accurate in testing on 121 patients with acute coronary syndrome, whose blood cholesterol levels have already been measured by traditional methods. It is now hoped that the system can be used for long-term non-invasive monitoring of such patients.

Just have a hand and the system will tell you cholesterol data. Since cholesterol is one of several types of fats (lipids) that play an important role in the body, we can track fat levels in such a simple way, says Wang Yikun, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Cholesterol is a fatty substance that is produced mainly in the liver, and also comes with our food inside the body, it is necessary for the formation of cell membranes and hormones. Cholesterol cannot dissolve in the blood, so it moves in the bloodstream with the help of proteins. As a result of the addition of cholesterol to the carrier protein, two types of complexes are formed, conventionally - bad and good. Bad cholesterol delivers cholesterol to body cells. Cells absorb the necessary amount of cholesterol, and the excess remains in the blood with all the consequences that follow. Good cholesterol removes excess cholesterol from the tissues and delivers it to the liver, where they are neutralized, this type of cholesterol helps people keep the heart healthy.^[1]

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