High-accuracy noninvasive continuous glucose monitoring using OCT angiography-purified blood scattering signals in human skin

Abstract

The accuracy of noninvasive continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) through near-infrared scattering is challenged by mixed scattering signals from different compartments, where glucose has a positive correlation with a blood scattering coefficient but a negative correlation with a tissue scattering coefficient. In this study, we developed a high-accuracy noninvasive CGM based on OCT angiography (OCTA)-purified blood scattering signals. The blood optical scattering coefficient (BOC) was initially extracted from the depth attenuation of backscattered light in OCT and then purified by eliminating the scattering signals from the surrounding tissues under the guidance of a 3D OCTA vascular map in human skin. The purified BOC was used to estimate the optical blood glucose concentration (BGC) through a linear calibration. The optical and reference BGC measurements were highly correlated (R = 0.94) without apparent time delay. The mean absolute relative difference was 6.09%. All optical BGC measurements were within the clinically acceptable Zones A + B, with 96.69% falling in Zone A on Parke's error grids. The blood glucose response during OGTT was mapped with a high spatiotemporal resolution of the single vessel and 5 seconds. This noninvasive OCTA-based CGM shows promising accuracy for clinical use. Future research will involve larger sample sizes and diabetic participants to confirm these preliminary findings.