Comparison of outpatient point of care glucose testing vs venous glucose in the clinical laboratory

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of glucometers in assessing glucose levels in outpatients. The investigation consisted in the analysis of retrospective validation data (obtained at the Clinical Laboratory of the Puerto Rico Medical Services Administration) and the analysis of data obtained from forty outpatients. Glucose concentration was obtained from these outpatient samples using the patients' glucometers and a clinical laboratory analyzer (hexokinase method). Statistical analysis included descriptive and correlation measures and t-test. Results revealed that accurate glucose values were obtained by the glucometers utilized in both the validation process and the outpatients (POCT) procedure. The investigation also demonstrated the need by outpatients to receive proper training in handling their glucometers.