Assessment of five portable blood glucose meters for use in cats

Objective-To evaluate the clinical and analytic accuracy of 5 portable bloo d glucose meters (PBGM) in cats, with emphasis on the detection of potentia l sources of error. Animals-200 cats. Procedure-Venous blood glucose readings from 5 PBGM were compared with the results of a hexokinase reference method. Agreement among methods was deter mined by error grid analysis and statistical methods. Results-A total of 2,975 PBGM readings and 513 reference values were analyz ed. The accuracy of the PBGM varied in different glycemic ranges. The large st differences between PBGM readings and reference values were in the high glycemic range; 4 PBGM underestimated and 1 PBGM overestimated the referenc e values in most instances. In the low and reference glycemic ranges, the a bsolute differences between PBGM readings and reference values were small. Despite the analytic differences in accuracy, 4 PBGM had 100% and 1 PBGM ha d 98.7% of readings in the clinically acceptable values of the error grid a nalysis. Within- and between-day precisions were good for all PBGM. Signifi cant differences were not detected between readings of EDTA and lithium-hep arinized blood and fresh blood without anticoagulant. Compared with these b lood types, 1 PBGM had significantly different readings with fluoride antic oagulated blood. In blood samples with a low Hct, all PBGM overestimated gl ucose concentrations. Sample volumes < 3 <mu>l resulted in inaccurate measu rements in 3 PBGM. Conclusions and Clinical Relevance-Performance varied among the 5 PBGM anal yzed; however, all PBGM were deemed acceptable for clinical use in cats. (A m J Ver Res 2000;61:1587-1592).