Urine surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy for non-invasive diabetic detection based on a portable Raman spectrometer

Abstract

A feasibility study for non-invasive diabetic detection based on a low cost portable Raman spectrometer and urine surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is presented. SERS of 41 urine samples (20 diabetic patients and 21 healthy volunteers) mixed with silver nanoparticles are measured by a self-developed portable Raman spectrometer (Hx-Spec) which is excited by a 785 nm diode laser and the spectrum range is 200–2700 cm−1 with a resolution (FWHM) of 6 cm−1. By methods of principal components analysis and linear discriminant analysis, a diagnostic sensitivity of 85% and a specificity of 90.5% are achieved in separating diabetic samples from normal urine specimens. The corresponding receiver operating characteristic is 0.836, indicting the accuracy of the predictive model.