Publication Date
2015
Document Type
Thesis
Committee Members
Jason Deibel (Committee Member), David Dolson (Advisor), Brent Foy (Committee Member), Ivan Medvedev (Advisor)
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Abstract
Type 1 diabetes is a condition that cumulatively costs around $14.9 billion in medical expenses every year in the United States. Besides being costly, the monitoring of this disease is invasive, painful, and often embarrassing to the afflicted individual; blood and urine testing is currently the daily method of monitoring blood glucose and ketone levels in the body of type 1 diabetics. Though the use of these samples is standard, another avenue for possibly determining blood glucose has not been completely explored. With over 3000 chemicals reportedly found in exhaled human breath, biomarkers associated with this disorder and many of the complications caused by it may exist and could be utilized in lieu of blood and urine samples. To examine breath for these markers our lab employs Terahertz radiation. Unlike competing methods of gas testing, the high specificity, speed of testing, and small sample size that the Terahertz spectral range affords is ideal for the medical field. Presented here are both the spectral assignments and the most recent results of our investigation into the exhaled biomarkers of type 1 diabetics utilizing Terahertz spectroscopy.
Page Count
60
Department or Program
Department of Physics
Year Degree Awarded
2015
Copyright
Copyright 2015, all rights reserved. This open access ETD is published by Wright State University and OhioLINK.
