M.K. Khodzitsky1

1 Limited Liability Company «Terahertz Photonics» (St. Petersburg, Russia)
1 khodzitskiy@yandex.ru

Diabetes is one of three most dangerous non-contagious illnesses, with 463 million cases in 2019 and a projected 578 million by 2030. Traditionally diagnosed by glucose monitoring, methods like impaired fasting glucose and glucose tolerance tests can lead to misdiagnosis. A new, more accurate method uses glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), a reliable biomarker for glucose levels. HbA1c is measured using various clinical methods, including chromatography and immunoassays. However, these methods are invasive, require expensive equipment, expert technicians, and complex procedures.

The aim of the study is an evaluation of a method for non-invasive monitoring of glycated hemoglobin levels in human blood using terahertz technologies.

A THz system for non-invasive determination of glycated hemoglobin levels in blood has been developed, consisting of a THz detector, a multimeter, and a laptop with specialized software. Clinical trials of the THz system have been carried out on 70 patients. It has been shown that the average relative error in measuring glycated hemoglobin levels using the non-invasive THz method was 16.56%.

The proposed method allows monitoring the level of glycated hemoglobin painlessly for the patient within 1 minute. This THz system is cheap and does not require qualified specialists. The use of machine learning (neural networks) for this non-invasive method will allow approaching 5% accuracy, as with invasive methods such as liquid chromatography.

Khodzitsky M. K. Terahertz Method of non-invasive monitoring of glycated hemoglobin levels in blood using terahertz radiation. Biomedicine Radioengineering. 2026. V. 29. № 3. P. 87–92. DOI: https:// doi.org/10.18127/ j15604136-202603-15 (In Russian)

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