[Measurement of blood glucose variations due to surgical stress]

It has been confirmed that the oral surgical invasion not only arouses emotions, such as anxiety and fear, but causes physiological changes at the same time through 2 different pathways, the autonomic nervous system and endocrine system. The change in blood glucose concentration is known as one of representative vital reactions associated with these 2 functional systems. Although secure measurement manipulation producing errors as small as possible is essential to the comparison of blood glucose concentrations obtained from a same individual at different times, various errors are often made during specimen preparation and measurement. Resulting values of glucose concentration are known to be especially influenced by specimen pretreatment, kinds of specimens, meals, menstruation and anesthetics among factors affecting the measurement. Thus we determined these factors in order to establish a measurement procedure to produce the least errors. As a result, it was thought to be desirable that the measurement is performed using the following procedure: 1) blood is sampled more than 90 minutes after meal; 2) whole blood collected from the median basilic vein is used as a specimen; 3) measurement is performed as soon as possible, within 60 minutes after sampling; 4) quantitative values of blood glucose concentration are obtained using dextrosticks and a dextrometer; 5) every specimen is measured 5 time to obtain a mean value used as blood glucose concentration in that specimen through averaging 3 measurement values, omitting the highest and lowest values, and 6) as for female patients, measurement (as well as operation) is performed on a day 2 weeks after the beginning of menstruation. It was concluded that blood glucose concentration can be used as a highly reliable parameter for the observation of vital reactions to external stimulation and for the determination of internal environment at a certain point of time if the measurement is performed with careful consideration of the above-mentioned factors.