Hi
Occasionally our diabetologists want to know if a patient is hypoglycaemic at the time of suggestive symptoms described by patients. The patients collect blood spots onto card, usually at home, which we elute and measure for glucose in the lab. This is not a new procedure and I know some other labs do the same. It avoids long periods of admission to wait for the symptoms to appear.
The advantage of using blood spots over, say, a glucose meter is (I hope) a degree of analytical reliability for low glucose concentrations and also a degree of credibility as it is difficulty for the patient to generate fictitious glucose results, or hide genuine ones.
My question:
Although this works fine I wondered if any one has an alternative procedure that is less demanding on lab resources. Does any one suggest or recommend a glucose meter or equivalent? To 'sell' using a meter for this diagnostic purpose to our accuracy-conscious medical staff we would have to be sure of the analytical accuracy at low glucose levels. Ideally this performance should have been validated and peer-reviewed. Secondly it would be nice to have a lockable or even hidden memory to be confident of the results obtained.
In the medium term I know their glucose will be monitored 24 x 7 by inhaled nanobots linked to the lab by a discrete wireless transmitter in their bathroom. However until then I was wondering if any of you have any practical suggestions?
Regards
Steve
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