Mexican Scientists Create Technology Improves Glucose Control

Mexican scientists developed a technology that helps improve glucose control and early detection of kidney damage, in a country where diabetes is an epidemic that causes more than 115,000 deaths annually and is the second cause of death.

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The technology, developed by scientists from the National Polytechnic Institute and the Research Center for Advanced Studies, is based on a technology that determines in people with diabetes the glucosilated hemoglobin (the marker for controlling diabetes and substances associated with kidney damage).

Both institutions detailed that this method uses 60 microliters of blood, about a third of a drop, to measure different variables and, unlike the conventional method, does not use toxic substances such as potassium cyanide to treat the sample.

Guadalupe Cleva Villanueva López, ESM researcher and project holder supported by the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation of Mexico City, highlighted that this innovation detects glycosylated hemoglobin in blood and other substances in plasma and urine for the control of diabetes.

The scientist explained that "detecting glycosylated hemoglobin, creatinine, urea and proteins will improve the metabolic control of diabetes and prevent kidney failure by finding timely damage".

On the other hand Alfredo Cruz Orea physicist at the Cinvestav specified that with this prototype and a software that they developed, new results were obtained. "In a wide range of the absorption spectrum of the blood, different elements can be seen indicating diabetes and kidney damage," he said.

The new diagnostic method will have to be analyzed by the Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks (Cofepris), the national health authority, to obtain its health registration in case it meets the requirements of quality, safety and effectiveness.

About 422 million people in the world and 62 million in the Americas suffer from type 2 diabetes mellitus, a disease that progressively damages organs such as the heart, blood vessels, eyes, kidneys and nerves, and in Mexico, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, this evil affects more than 12.8 million.