Abstract
A blood test is critical to assess overall health and identify possible disorders: anemia, infections, leukemia, diabetes, etc. However, currently available techniques involve invasive blood collection, which is very uncomfortable for patients. Near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy is a highly flexible form of analysis that can be applied to a wide range of analytical applications.
Long a basic technology in remote sensing, NIR spectroscopy has become popular as an economical tool for chemical analysis. NIR spectroscopy can be used to analyze multiple constituents in a single scan and to identify a non-destructive or non-invasive analysis method.
Chemometrics is an area that refers to the application of statistical and mathematical methods, as well as those based on mathematical logic, to more complex data treatments in order to relate the obtained signals (for example, intensities) to the desired results (concentrations).
Thus, the association between NIR and chemometrics has led to the development of an unprecedented technology in blood analysis, precisely because it allows a fast, inexpensive, and non-invasive method. In this review, we have covered the major advances in this area over the last twenty years and, as you will see, technology for bloodless blood analysis is not a dream but a reality.