Measurement of Lens Autofluorescence for Diabetes Screening

Many efforts have been made lately to develop cost-effective, simple, and reproducible tests for diabetes screening besides the already established fasting plasma glucose, the oral glucose tolerance test, and the glycated hemoglobin A1c. Several tests have been proposed lately, based on the measurement of the so-called advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs). AGEs production is exacerbated during hyperglycemia, and their accumulation in different tissues reflects the degree and duration of dysglycemia. The human lens represents a tissue where AGEs accumulation can be particularly well assessed. The present article comments on the article by Cahn et al. published in this issue of the Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology. Cahn and coauthors tested a new scanning confocal biomicroscope for its accuracy to detect noninvasively subjects with diabetes or at risk for developing diabetes.