Prehospital emergency care : official journal of the National Association of EMS Physicians and the National Association of State EMS Directors
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Correlation of capillary and venous blood glucometry with laboratory determination.
During resuscitation in the Singapore Armed Forces, blood glucose samples are often obtained for analysis using the capillary glucometer. A drop of venous blood from the intravenous cannula is sometimes used to ascertain the patient's blood glucose level. Venous samples may be sent to a commercial laboratory, but this does not allow immediate results. ⋯ Capillary whole-blood glucose values best approximated venous plasma glucose values from the laboratory. Measuring the venous whole-blood glucose using the glucometer resulted in an overestimation of the venous plasma glucose compared with the laboratory result by about 0.97 mmol/L (17.46 mg/dL). This may result in the withholding of intravenous glucose for patients who are actually hypoglycemic.