A comparative study of Venous and Capillary blood glucose in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Introduction: The cornerstone of providing optimum diabetic care in a tertiary care hospital is monitoring of glycemic status of the patient by the health care provider. Bed-side monitoring helps in achieving the glycemic goals in admitted patients. But it is important that the glucometer being used is accurate, calibrated and the values obtained from glucometer are as near as to the plasma glucose values obtained in the laboratory. Above factors can lead to unnecessary change in treatment which might result in hyper or hypoglycemia, which is a life-threatening situation and most common complication of diabetes. Therefore correlation in capillary and venous blood glucose will definitely help in better management of patients, especially in Intensive Care Units (ICUs). Aims and Objectives:The present study was done to determine the mean difference and correlation between capillary and laboratory venous plasma glucose estimation. Material and Methods: The study was carried out in a tertiary care hospital in Meerut. Total 373 subjects (176 males and 197 females) including 149 cases with altered glucose levels and 224 control subjects were studied. After overnight fasting, capillary blood glucose by glucometer and venous plasma glucose by Siemens autoanalyzer were estimated from all subjects, aged above 18 years. Both samples were taken at the same time. Mean difference and correlation coefficient were determined. Results:It was observed that there was a significant difference between capillary and venous blood glucose values. The capillary blood glucose value on an average was 10.19% higher than venous blood glucose values. Conclusion: According to the results obtained, it was concluded that glucometer, as a sole measuring device in a hospital setup, is not satisfactory. The venous blood glucose is a better indicator and is of utmost importance for confirmatory results. This is also of utmost importance in deciding the dose of insulin in diabetic patients who are on insulin infusion.