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Advanced Glycation End-products (AGEs) are biochemical end-products of non-enzymatic glycation and are formed
irreversibly in human serum and skin tissue. AGEs are thought to play an important role in the pathogenesis of diabetes
and corresponding complications. All conventional methods for measuring AGEs must take sampling and measure in
vitro. These methods are invasive and have the problem of relatively time-consuming. AGEs have fluorescent
characteristics. Skin AGEs can be assessed noninvasively by collecting the fluorescence emitted from skin tissue when
excited with proper light. However, skin tissue has absorption and scattering effects on fluorescence of AGEs, it is not
reliable to evaluate the accumulation of AGEs according the emitted fluorescence but not considering optical properties
of skin tissue. In this study, a portable system for detecting AGEs fluorescence and skin reflectance spectrum
simultaneously has been developed. The system mainly consists of an ultraviolet light source, a broadband light source, a
trifurcated fiber-optic probe, and a compact charge coupled device (CCD) spectrometer. The fiber-optic probe consists of
36 optical fibers which are connected to the ultraviolet light source, 6 optical fibers connected to the broadband light
source, and a core fiber connected to the CCD spectrometer. Demonstrative test measurements with the system on skin
tissue of 40 healthy subjects have been performed. Using parameters that are calculated from skin reflectance spectrum,
the distortion effects caused by skin absorption and scattering can be eliminated, and the integral intensity of corrected
fluorescence has a strong correlation with the accumulation of AGEs. The system looks very promising for both
laboratory and clinical applications to monitor AGEs related diseases, especially for chronic diabetes and complications.
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