title: Reliability assessment of glucose measurement by HemoCue analyser in a neonatal intensive care unit.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Rapid and reliable bed-side determination of blood glucose concentration is very important in the management of acutely ill infants and especially in premature newborns. HemoCue is an easy-to-use glucose analyser. The aim of the present study was to examine the usefulness of the HemoCue glucose analyser compared to a reference plasma glucose method (SYS, BM/Hitachi 747/737) in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
  
  
  METHODS
  Seventy-eight consecutive neonates admitted to our NICU were enrolled in the study. At the time of the study all patients were grouped according to nutritional management (parenteral or enteral nutrition), haematocrit values and birth weight. The effects of feeding management, haematocrit values, and birth weight on accuracy and precision of the device were evaluated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall data linear regression analysis yielded an r-value of 0.905 and the Bland-Altman method demonstrated that HemoCue overestimates plasma glucose by 0.932 mmol/L. Evaluation of our data by receiver operating characteristic curve demonstrated 100% sensitivity cutoff at 4.1 mmol/L.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  HemoCue cannot be used satisfactorily in the management of glycaemia in the NICU. In the preterm population, birth weight had a dramatic influence on HemoCue accuracy. Low haematocrit and parenteral feeding further contributed to a decrease in the accuracy of this device.
authors.affiliation: Servizio di Patologia Neonatale, Dipartimento di Scienze Pediatriche, Università di Genova, Istituto G. Gaslini, Genova, Italy. carlobellini@ospedale-gaslini.ge.it
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bellini
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Serra
authors.forename: Domenico
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Risso
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mazzella
authors.forename: Eugenio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bonioli
mesh_terms: D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000032:analysis*; D019963:Clinical Chemistry Tests / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007363:Intensive Care Units, Neonatal; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose