Self glucose monitoring: a comparison of the Glucometer, Glucoscan, and Hypocount B

Three reflectance meters available in Canada for glucose self monitoring were assessed for accuracy and reliability in determining capillary blood glucose compared with venous serum glucose assayed by the laboratory hexokinase method and to capillary whole blood glucose determined by the glucose-oxidase method on a YSI (Yellow Springs Instrument, Yellow Springs, Ohio). The readings with all three meters correlated with serum glucose rather than with whole blood glucose. The Ames Glucometer (Ames Division, Miles Laboratories, Rexdale, Ontario, Canada) was found to have the best predictive value over the full range of serum glucoses from 30 to 399 mg/dl. The Lifescan Glucoscan (Lifescan Inc., Mountainview, California), although reading satisfactorily in the range 30-180 mg/dl, significantly underestimated the capillary glucose at values greater than 180 mg/dl. The Hypoguard Hypocount B (Hypoguard Ltd., Suffolk, England) on the other hand read consistently high in the range 30-99 mg/dl but read satisfactorily over the range 100-399 mg/dl. All three methods, however, had inherent limitations that must be taken into account in their clinical application.