Measurement of an analyte on the skin using a hue angle
A process is provided for analyzing a skin in any of a number of biochemical or immunological tests for an analyte which involves applying to a skin surface on a patient a reagent which selectively binds to the analyte to form an analyte-reagent complex; subjecting the skin surface on the patient to a treatment which develops a color correlating to an amount of analyte in the specimen; measuring a hue angle of the color developed on the skin surface of the patient by measuring a reflectance over a range of visible light spectrum at a plurality of intervals in wavelength of the visible light spectrum to obtain a measurement; and correlating the measurement of the hue angle to determine a concentration of the analyte.
1. A process of analyzing a skin for an analyte comprising the steps of:
applying to a skin surface on a patient a reagent which selectively binds to the analyte to form an analyte-reagent complex;
subjecting the skin surface on the patient to a treatment which develops a color on the skin surface of the patient correlating to an amount of the analyte;
measuring a hue angle of the color developed on the patient by measuring a reflectance over a range of a visible light spectrum at a plurality of intervals in wavelength of the visible light spectrum to obtain a measurement; and
correlating the measurement of the hue angle to determine a concentration of the analyte.
2. The process according to claim 1 wherein the reagent is a biochemical or an immunological reagent.
3. The process according to claim 1 wherein the reagent which selectively binds to the analyte is selected from the group consisting of a hydrophobic protein, a protein toxin, an antibody, and an enzyme whose substrate is the analyte.
4. The process as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising treating the reagent on the skin surface with a visualizing agent.
5. The process as claimed in claim 4 , further comprising treating the reagent on the skin surface with an indicating agent.
6. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the visible light spectrum has a range of about 400-700 nm.
7. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the intervals are each about 20 nm.