Abstract
Background: Self-monitoring of blood glucose using point-of-care glucometers is a critical tool in diabetic care. Recently, various glucometers have been developed. This cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of commonly used glucometers by comparing their readings with those of the laboratory reference method.
Methods: The five commercially available glucometers - Accu-Chek (Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Mannheim, Germany), OneTouch (LifeScan Inc, USA), Freestyle Optium Neo (Abbott Diabetes Care Inc, USA), Contour Next, and Contour Next One (Ascensia Diabetes Care Inc. Canada) - were utilized in our study. Participants were randomly selected for measuring fasting blood glucose levels to eliminate any factors that could affect measurements by the glucometers and glucose hexokinase method (reference method). Statistical analysis was carried out and the readings were expressed as mean and standard deviation.
Results: All glucometer readings correlated well with the laboratory measurements; however, the venous glucose level readings showed a slight difference, especially in case of higher blood glucose levels. Although, no significant difference was found between the mean venous blood glucose and the mean of other glucometer readings, a highly significant positive correlation was found between laboratory measurements and glucometer readings. Moreover, our study confirmed that Accu-Check, OneTouch, and FreeStyle Optium Neo meters were significantly useful predictors of venous blood glucose. Notably, Freestyle Optium Neo showed the minimal mean bias (-0.4%) in contrast to Contour Next One that showed the highest proportional bias (6.1%).
Conclusions: Independent comparison of all glucometers should be carried out as the proportional bias, especially in case of high blood glucose levels, can affect patient care.