ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine how well the measurements from a glucometer (SD Codefree) correlated with those from a standard auto analyser (BT-3000) using blood samples from diabetic and non-diabetic patients at the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital in Ghana. A cross-sectional study was conducted with a total of 150 randomly selected patients; 100 diabetic patients (4 type 1 and 96 type II) and 50 non diabetic patients. Ante-cubital venous and finger pricked blood samples were obtained from the patients following standard procedures, and blood glucose concentrations were determined using the two methods respectively. RESULTS: Data generated was entered and analysed using SPSS version 20. The mean glucose concentration for the diabetic patients (n = 100) using the glucometer were not significantly different from that of the auto analyser (10.16 ± 3.708 mmol/L vs. 9.458 ± 3.204 mmol/L, p = 0.154), though the glucometer generally overestimated the glucose concentration. Similarly, readings for non-diabetics were comparable between the two methods (5.286 ± 0.477 mmol/L vs. 5.092 ± 0.525 mmol/L, p = 0.057). The correlation between the two methods was good and highly significant (r = 0.862, p < 0.001) with both methods depicting high sensitivity and specificity in measuring blood glucose levels among diabetics as indicated by the ROC curve.
