Performance characteristics of the HemoCue B-Glucose analyzer using whole-blood samples

We evaluated the HemoCue B-Glucose (HemoCue Inc, Mission Viejo, Calif) analyzer for accuracy, precision, linearity, and recovery. One hundred eighteen capillary whole-blood samples were analyzed in duplicate on the HemoCue B-Glucose and the YSI 2300 STAT Glucose/L-Lactate (Yellow Springs [Ohio] Instruments) analyzers; corresponding plasma glucose levels were measured in duplicate on the Roche Cobas MIRA (Roche Diagnostic Systems, Nutley, NJ) analyzer. Plasma glucose levels were converted to whole-blood equivalent glucose levels by using a factor of 1.11. The following regression equations were obtained: HemoCue = 1.02 (YSI) + 0.19, Sy/x = 0.52, r2 = .984; and HemoCue = 0.98 (whole-blood equivalent glucose levels) + 0.26, Sy/x = 0.55, r2 = .982. Within-run coefficients of variation were 4.0%, 3.5%, 2.2%, and 1.0% at glucose concentrations of 3.9, 5.4, 8.7, and 17.1 mmol/L (71, 97, 156, and 308 mg/dL), respectively. Between-run imprecision and total imprecision using lyopholized materials with three lot numbers of cuvettes were 4.2% and 5.6% at 2.1 mmol/L (37 mg/dL) and 2.4% and 2.7% at 5.2 mmol/L (95 mg/dL), respectively. The HemoCue B-Glucose analyzer displayed linearity between 0 and 22.2 mmol/L (0 and 400 mg/dL), and the percent recovery averaged 98.7% +/- 4.5% (mean +/- SD). The HemoCue B-Glucose analyzer is a rapid, simple, and reliable method for determinations of whole-blood glucose levels.