ABSTRACT
In severely hypotensive patients, fingerstick glucose determinations often do not accurately represent venous glucose levels. Those fingerstick glucose values that fall outside the acceptable range in hypotensive patient group are all lowere than the standard glucose values because the strip used is the oxygen-sensitive glucose oxidase method. This condition will be incorrectly diagnosed as a hypoglycaemic condition instead of normal. The objective of this study was to evaluate the O2-insensitivity of a new electrochemical biosensor test strip that can be used for different types of blood samples. This biosensor uses an O2-independent glucose dehydrogenase enzyme instead of an O2-dependent glucose oxidase enzyme in the reaction. We compared glucose measurements between venous blood by biosensor with the standard method which gave a coefficient of correlation (r)=0.998 (n=216). In cases of arterial blood with a wide range of pO2 varying from 21.7 mmHg to 388.7 mmHg, we compared the glucose levels measured by biosensor with standard method which gave r=0.997 (n=148). The precision analysis was tested in three glucose levels and gave a coefficient of variation (CV) less than 3 percent. The results showed that the new electrochemical biosensor was oxygen-insensitive and provided rapid, precise and accurate glucose measurements.