Precision of office-based blood glucose meters in screening for gestational diabetes.

Abstract

Is the precision of currently available glucose meters adequate for gestational diabetes screening? We performed a prospective cohort study of 62 gravid women and compared the precision of three glucose meters to laboratory standard technology. The HemoCue coefficient of variation was sufficiently low in venous whole blood and plasma and capillary whole blood and plasma (3.0%, 1.8%, 2.8%, and 2.3%, respectively) to allow use in gestational diabetes screening. The OneTouch II coefficient of variation was sufficiently low in capillary whole blood (2.7%) to allow use in gestational diabetes screening but was too high in venous whole blood and plasma and in capillary plasma (3.6%, 7.8%, and 5.7%). The ExacTech coefficient of variation was too high in venous or capillary whole blood (5.4% and 8.1%) for use in gestational diabetes screening and does not analyze plasma samples. The HemoCue meter in venous and capillary whole blood and plasma and the OneTouch II meter in capillary whole blood have coefficients of variation low enough for gestational diabetes screening.