Performance of a Veterinary Portable Glucose Meter for Blood Glucose Concentration Measurement in Red-Eared Slider...

There is limited knowledge about the accuracy and precision of portable blood glucose meters (PBGM) for measuring blood glucose in reptiles.

We aimed to evaluate a veterinary PBGM for measuring blood glucose concentration in red-eared sliders by comparison with a laboratory reference method, and to assess the influence of packed cell volume on PBGM measurements.

Blood samples were obtained from 20 red-eared sliders from the jugular vein. Two strips of a veterinary PBGM on the canine setting were run consecutively. Immediately afterward, the blood was centrifuged, and the plasma was separated into a clean tube. Plasma was frozen and shipped for glucose measurement via a hexokinase analyzer. Passing-Bablok regression and Bland-Altman analysis were conducted to determine agreement.

The veterinary PBGM overestimated blood glucose concentration, with a mean overestimation of 28.0 mg/dL (95% CI: 16.7-45.0, Limits of Agreement: 5.8-50.3 mg/dL). The bias was proportional, increasing at higher blood glucose concentrations. The mean difference was 23.1 mg/dL in the samples with PCV ≤ 19% (n = 9), 30.8 mg/dL in the samples with PCV between 20% and 29% (n = 7), and 34.4 mg/dL in the samples with PCV greater than or equal to 30% (n = 4). Intra-assay coefficients of variations, a measure of precision, were, on average, 4.5%, ranging from 0% to 17.4%.

The use of the veterinary PBGM evaluated in this study in red-eared sliders may alter both treatment and diagnostic decisions due to the overestimation of glucose concentrations.