Validation of two human point-of-care glucometers for glucose concentration determination in rats

Abstract

Glucose disorders associated with critical illness are common in veterinary medicine and availability of efficient, easy and affordable diagnostic process is vital in combating the menace. Point-of-care glucometers readily come to mind in achieving this goal considering their importance in research and critical case management in veterinary clinics as they are cheap, user friendly, can use small sample quantity and quick generation of results. However, there have been concerns about generation of erroneous results in certain species. This study compared the accuracy and agreement of two point-of-care glucometers for blood glucose determination in rats. Blood samples were obtained from 20 healthy Sprague-Dawley albino rats. Blood (2 ml) was collected through the retro-bulbar plexus and two glucometers were used to determine the blood glucose concentrations immediately. Thereafter, 1 ml was put into a clean test tube treated with ethylene diamine tetracetic acid and the remaining 1 ml was also put into another test tube without anticoagulant. The samples were processed appropriately to harvest the plasma and serum. Blood glucose test kit was used to measure glucose concentrations in plasma and serum by the glucose oxidase method. Data generated were analysed using one way analysis of variance. Results showed that the mean value generated by one glucometer was relatively comparable with the values generated by the laboratory methods while the other significantly overestimated the glucose concentration. This underscores the importance of validation of glucometers before use in any species as unvalidated glucometers can lead to erroneous research conclusions and clinical decisions with dire consequences