title: Laboratory assessment of three glucometers.
abstract: The study was designed to assess the technical performance of three common glucometers (Glucometer Elite, Accutrend Alpha, One Touch Basic) marketed in Nigeria. This is with a view to assessing their suitability for use in this environment and to provide an informed opinion on the selection option. Venous blood, capillary blood, serum and plasma were assayed during the study. Precision, accuracy, linearity and effect of haemolysis and haematocrit were carried out on each glucometer. Simultaneous analysis using the laboratory reference method was also carried out where necessary. Intra-assay precision was between 1.4% (Glucometer Elite)-11% (One Touch Basic) while the interassay precision was best for the Accutrend Alpha with a CV of 1.9%. All three glucometers correlated excellently with laboratory values and the %deviation from laboratory values was 0.2-10.5%. The Glucometer Elite was the most portable and used the least volume of blood (5 ul). One Touch Basic Glucometer was the least affected by haemolysis. Haematocrit values less than 50% did not have any effect on the three glucometer readings. The technical performance of these three glucometers were found to be acceptable and are recommended for use by diabetic patients, emergency and intensive care units and antenatal clinics, subject to periodic assessment and calibration.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Pathology, General Hospital, Marina, Nigeria.
authors.forename: M O
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Ajala
authors.forename: O O
authors.initials: OO
authors.lastname: Oladipo
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Fasanmade
authors.forename: T A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Adewole
mesh_terms: D001786:Blood Glucose; D015190:Blood Glucose Self-Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation*; D002138:Calibration; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006400:Hematocrit; D006454:Hemoglobins; D006801:Humans; D009549:Nigeria; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose; D006454:Hemoglobins