Blood glucose meters tend to underestimate hypoglycemia, overestimate hyperglycemia Tips For Your Family's Health

Blood glucose meters tend to underestimate hypoglycemia, overestimate hyperglycemia

July 14th, 2011 Rory Wayn Leave a comment Go to comments

Blood glucose monitoring is essential in glycemic control and the reliability of glucose monitoring devices has a major impact on clinical outcomes. A study investigated the accuracy and precision of the most commonly used blood glucose meters in a hospital setting. The following BGMs were evaluated in 200 type 1 and 400 type 2 diabetes patients admitted to a Greek clinic: Accu-Check Aviva, Precision-Xceed and Glucocard X-sensor. Using these three BGMs, capillary glucose values were tested and compared to simultaneously analyzed plasma glucose using the oxidase method of the World Health Organization . Using the WHO method values as control, differences between and some degree of unreliability among the three BGMs were observed. Hypoglycemia was underestimated by mean differences of 4.1, 6.2 and 9.1 mg/dL, respectively, and hyperglycemia was overestimated by 4.8, 10.4 and 20.3 mg/dL, respectively. Hypotension and low hematocrit significantly influenced the measurements of the three BGMs. The inaccuracies observed in the study have clinical implications, including underrecognition of asymptomatic hypoglycemia, a potentially dangerous condition frequently reported in hospitalized patients. Patients, caregivers and health professionals should be made aware of the limitations of currently available BGMs : 723).

Tips For Your Family's Health