PERFORMANCE-CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HEMOCUE B-GLUCOSE ANALYZER USING WHOLE-BLOOD SAMPLES

We evaluated the HemoCue B-Glucose (HemoCue Inc, Mission Viejo, Calif) analyzer for accuracy, precision, linearity, and recovery. One hundre d eighteen capillary whole-blood samples were analyzed in duplicate on the HemoCue B-Glucose and the YSI 2300 STAT Glucose/L-Lactate (Yellow Springs [Ohio] Instruments) analyzers; corresponding plasma glucose l evels were measured in duplicate on the Roche Cobas MIRA (Roche Diagno stic Systems, Nutley, NI) analyzer. Plasma glucose levels were convert ed to whole-blood equivalent glucose levels by using a factor of 1.11. The following regression equations were obtained: HemoCue=1.02 (YSI)0.19, S(y/x)=0.52, r2=.984; and HemoCue=0.98 (whole-blood equivalent g lucose levels) +0.26, S(y/x)=0.55, r2=.982. Within-run coefficients of variation were 4.0%, 3.5%, 2.2%, and 1.0% at glucose concentrations o f 3.9, 5.4, 8.7, and 17.1 mmol/L (71, 97, 156, and 308 mg/dL), respect ively. Between-run imprecision and total imprecision using lyopholized materials with three lot numbers of cuvettes were 4.2% and 5.6% at 2. 1 mmol/L (37 mg/dL) and 2.4% and 2.7% at 5.2 mmol/L (95 mg/dL), respec tively. The HemoCue B-Glucose analyzer displayed linearity between 0 a nd 22.2 mmol/L (0 and 400 mg/dL), and the percent recovery averaged 98 .7%-4.5% (mean+/-SD). The HemoCue B-Glucose analyzer is a rapid, simpl e, and reliable method for determinations of whole-blood glucose level s.