title: Prevalence of bacterial contamination of glucose test strips in individual single-use packets versus multiple-use vials.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Glucose measurement is the cornerstone of diabetes control. In the hospital setting, the same device and package of test strips (50 or 100 strips) can be used to monitor glucose in several patients, which can increase cross contamination. The objective of our study is to measure bacterial contamination in glucose test strips, comparing results in individual single-use packets (one hospital) versus multi-use vials (two hospitals) in Spain.
  
  
  METHODS
  Test strips were collected from five different wards. Each hospital also collected two unopened vials from a single ward as controls. They were sent to a reference laboratory for microbiologic study. A number equal or higher than two colony forming units per strip was considered as a positive result.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Out of 423 glucose test strips collected and cultured, 146 were contaminated (34%); only 7% of individually packed strips were contaminated versus 45% of strips packed in multi-use vials, with a high statistical significance (p &lt; .001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In the strips from multi-use vials, a high contamination rate was found and highly pathogenic organisms were identified, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis or Staphylococcus hemolyticus. In contrast, in strips packed individually, there was a much lower contamination rate and no such pathogen organisms were found. Therefore, in the hospital setting, the use of blood glucose test strips in individual packages would be more advantageous (mainly from a clinical point of view, but also from a financial one) than those packed in multi-use vials.
authors.affiliation: Department of Analisis Clinicos, Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Arrixaca, Murcia, Spain. millan.perez@carm.es
authors.forename: Millán
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pérez-Ayala
authors.forename: Paloma
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Oliver
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rodríguez Cantalejo
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000032:analysis*; D015190:Blood Glucose Self-Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000592:standards; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000453:epidemiology; D004340:Drug Contamination / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004349:Drug Packaging / Q000379:methods*; D004866:Equipment Contamination / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D015995:Prevalence; D011934:Reagent Strips; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000453:epidemiology; D013212:Staphylococcus epidermidis / Q000302:isolation & purification; D041162:Staphylococcus haemolyticus / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose; D011934:Reagent Strips
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