US researchers have developed a skin patch containing nine tiny needles that painlessly collect blood samples.
The German News Agency cited the researchers at the American Chemical Society as saying that each needle is about the diameter of a human hair and less than 1 millimeter long.
The patch can collect a fluid found around the human body's cells that contains a wealth of potential biomarkers of the disease.
According to the Science Daily website, the patch includes a strip of paper that contains gold nano rods coated with a negatively charged polymer, and a positively charged dye.
After sticking the micro needles in the body, a sample of cell fluid is extracted into the paper strip so the researchers can use it to complete their analyses.
The research team says the new technique can deliver very accurate results with much less time and effort.
