Glucose Sensors: Revolution in Diabetes Management 2016

Dear Colleagues,

Diabetes is one of the most challenging socio-health emergencies of the third millennium.  About 350 million people worldwide are estimated to be diabetic (50% of whom are undiagnosed), but this number is rapidly increasing due to aging populations and sedentary lifestyles, with the prospective of exceeding 500 million cases in 2030. Every year, 1.5 million deaths can be directly attributed to diabetes. In Western countries, the economic cost of diabetes can exceed 15% of the budget of national health systems. Therefore, impact of innovative methodologies and technologies for diabetes management can be extremely high.
Most of the existing methodologies and technologies for diabetes management rely on the capability of correctly measuring glucose concentration levels in the blood by using suitable sensors. The most widely used approach is self-monitoring blood glucose (SMBG), three to four times a day, through portable minimally-invasive lancing sensor devices, which exploit the glucose-oxidase enzyme, but, in the last 15 years, Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) sensors have been developed which can provide measurements, in real time, with a 1–5 min sampling period and for several consecutive days/weeks. Most of CGM sensors exploit glucose-oxidase, but devices based on different principles, e.g., fluorescence or skin dielectric properties, have been also proposed.

The development of glucose sensor technologies and methodologies for the treatment of diabetes, universally accessible and easily usable from both the patients’ and physicians’ point of view, present several challenging aspects in different areas of scientific research, ranging from medicine to physics, electronics, chemistry, ergonomics, data analysis and signal processing, and software development to mention but a few. This Special Issue aims at presenting the latest technologies and methodologies developed in this interdisciplinary field of science. Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

    - Physiology of glucose sensing
    - Technologies for glucose sensing
    - Calibration of glucose sensors
    - Online algorithms for glucose sensors (including denoising, prediction, classification)
    - E-health, m-health and personal healthcare systems applications of glucose sensors in diabetes     management
    - New populations: elderly, obese, type 2
    - Glucose sensor requirements for open-loop vs. closed-loop clinical use
    - Non-adjunctive use of continuous glucose monitoring sensors

Dr. Giovanni Sparacino
Dr. Andrea Facchinetti
Dr. J. Hans DeVries
Guest Editors

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