LABORATORY AND CLINICAL-EVALUATION OF 2 GLUCOSE METERS FOR THE NEONATAL INTENSIVE-CARE UNIT

Objective: To evaluate the analytical and clinical performance of the One Touch II and Advantage glucose meters for use in neonatal specimen s. Design and Methods: For the laboratory evaluation, a total of 96 um bilical cord whole blood specimens were analyzed on the One Touch II a nd/or Advantage meters. Samples were centrifuged after analysis on the meters and plasma glucose was determined on the Hitachi 917. For the clinical evaluation, a total of 64 infants had specimens analyzed on e ach of the meters as well as on the laboratory analyzer. Results: In t he laboratory and clinical evaluations, both meters correlated well (r > 0.9, p < 0.001) with the plasma values from the Hitachi 917. Howeve r, the mean difference between the Advantage and Hitachi 917 was lower than that of the One Touch II in both the laboratory (-0.23 vs -0.64 mmol/L) and the clinical evaluations (-0.08 vs -0.60 mmol/L). 53.1% of One Touch and 26.6% of Advantage results from the clinical study had a discrepancy of >0.5 mmol/L from the laboratory value. Conclusions: F or neonatal specimens, glucose meters must have good low end precision , sensitivity and accuracy. In this study, the Advantage meter had few er discordant results and better correlation with the Hitachi 917. Ove rall, nursing and laboratory staff preferred the performance and chara cteristics of the Advantage meter. Copyright (C) 1998 The Canadian Soc iety of Clinical Chemists.