Non-invasive glucose sensing via the fingernail bed using THz radiation

The possibility of establishing a novel technique for reliably accessing glycemic information in a non-invasive, easy to implement method at THz frequencies via the fingernail bed is investigated. The nail bed’s major content is blood at its various glucose levels and is also partially protected from environmental conditions by the nail plate, making it a desirable platform for non-invasive glucose sensing. The study is based on a 2D computational electromagnetics (EM) model of the layered fingernail in COMSOL Multiphysics, where the required dielectric function (i.e. permittivity and conductivity) of the fingernail plate is measured using THz-Time-Domain- Spectroscopy (THz-TDS), and the glucose-dependend dielectric functions of the fingernail bed are taken from available experimental data in the literature. From this data a material model using a multipole Cole-Cole model is established for both, the nail plate and the nail bed, where the glucose content in the latter is varied from 3.0-19.0 mmol/l. A numerical analysis of the THz reflectometry at the fingernail in the frequency range of 0.1-2.0 THz revealed that the reflectance spectra are sensitive to the glucose content in the nail bed proving that accurate glucose sensing via the fingernail bed may become feasible around 0.2-0.4 THz.