THE USE OF A HEMOCUE BLOOD-GLUCOSE ANALYZER IN A NEONATAL UNIT

Near patient testing for glucose is now a widely accepted procedure in hospital wards and clinics. However, in a neonatal ward where the det ection of hypoglycaemia rather than hyperglycaemia is of paramount imp ortance, it is more difficult to find a suitable glucose monitoring in strument. We compared two Hemocue blood glucose analysers (Hemocue Ltd ) in our special care baby unit (SCBU) with the laboratory procedures and found that the Hemocue may overestimate the glucose by as much as 2.5 mmol/L. In addition, Hemocue analysers are costly to run. We feel these analysers may be more useful in a general ward rather than in a SCBU.