Assessment of five portable blood glucose meters, a point-of-care analyzer, and color test strips for measuring blood glucose concentration in dogs

Objective-To compare blood glucose concentrations obtained using a point-of -care (POC) analyzer, 5 portable blood glucose meters (PBGM), and a color r eagent test strip with concentrations obtained using a reference method, an d to compare glucose concentrations obtained using fresh blood samples in t he PBGM with concentrations obtained using brood anticoagulated with lithiu m heparin. Design-Case series. Sample Population-110 blood samples from 34 dogs; glucose concentration of the samples ranged from 41 to 596 mg/dl. Procedure-Logistic regression was used to compare blood glucose concentrati ons obtained with the Various devices with reference method concentrations. Ease of use was evaluated subjectively. Percentage of times a clinical dec ision would have been altered if results of each of these methods had been used, rather than results of the reference method, was calculated. Results-For 3 of the PBGM, blood glucose concentrations obtained with fresh blood were not significantly different from concentrations obtained with b lood samples anticoagulated with lithium heparin. None of the devices provi ded results statistically equivalent to results of the reference method, bu t the POC analyzer was more accurate than the others. For some samples, rel iance on results of the PBGM or the color test strip would have resulted in erroneous clinical decisions. Conclusions and Clinical Relevance-Although commercially available PBGM and color lest strips provided blood glucose concentrations reasonably close t o those obtained with reference methods, some devices were more accurate th an others. Use of results from these devices could lead to erroneous clinic al decisions in some cases.