title: Comparison of point-of-care testing glucose results from intensive care patients measured with network-ready devices.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Fast and reliable glycemic control is of tremendous importance in intensive care units. Point-of-care devices used in professional care have to be precise and of low variability, and their connectivity has to outrange the abilities of home-care equivalents. In particular, the meter's efficiency should be tested not only with spiked blood samples from healthy donors but also with blood from intensive care unit patients because of their special matrix conditions as low hematocrit, oxygen pressure variability, or medication.
  
  
  METHODS
  Four types of network-ready glucose meters were tested. Data, obtained from native or maltose/xylose-spiked intensive care patients' blood, were compared (oxygen, hematocrit, glucose, and maltose and xylose dependencies) with those from a YSI 2300 STAT Plus™ glucose and lactate analyzer (YSI Life Sciences, Yellow Springs, OH). According to ISO 15197 (2003) acceptance of glucose meter results was determined. Quality control results were investigated considering a new calculation type in German guidelines.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Three of the meters fulfill the overall acceptance criterions. Two of the meters achieved accuracies above 93% in all oxygen, hematocrit, and glucose subgroups. Maltose generates deviations leading to accuracies from 71.1% to 100%, and xylose causes accuracies of 33.3% to 100%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  State of the art for manufacturing small network point-of-care testing glucose meters has reached a new level of precision, but the devices still have to be handled with care, and in particular the staff of an intensive care unit still needs knowledge about possible interferences.
authors: Department of Anesthesiology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.
authors: Susanne
authors: S
authors: Hopf
authors: Bernhard
authors: B
authors: Graf
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Gruber
mesh_terms: D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000032:analysis*; D003422:Critical Care / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems; D011446:Prospective Studies
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose