An improved technique for the rapid continuous measurement of whole blood glucose, suitable for clinical application in an artificial endocrine pancreas.

An improved bedside technique for the continuous monitoring of glycemia is described. A linear relationship results between whole blood glucose concentration and plasma glucose levels, and allows the calibration of the system in terms of plasma glucose levels. In operation venous blood is withdrawn at a steady rate using a double-lumen catheter and directed to a continuous-flow laboratory analyzer, where glucose analysis is carried out using a modified glucose oxidase-peroxidase methodology. The improvements in this technique include: i) a reduction in the delay of the analyzer to 90 s, making it suitable for application in a system for blood glucose regulation, ii) a minimal blood requirement of 3 ml/h, permitting long-term monitoring, iii) elimination of the need for systemic anticoagulation, iv) an excellent correlation (r = 0.993) between the measured whole blood glucose and the actual plasma glucose concentration, v) an average baseline drift of +0.5 mg%/h, vi) a sensitivity loss of less than 0.1%/h, and vii) a reasonable operating cost. This technique was implemented as part of a clinical apparatus known as an artificial endocrine pancreas which has been reliably applied in clinical and animal studies.