Performance of a new interference-resistant glucose meter

Objectives: Glucose meters are widely used in self and hospital monitoring of blood glucose. We examined the analytical performance of a StatStrip glucose monitoring system. Design and methods: Linearity, % recovery and within-run imprecision were studied using glucose-spiked whole blood. A total of 120 heparinized samples were used in method comparison using a plasma hexokinase on the Dimension RxL MAX analyzer as the comparison method. Common interferences were tested on the StatStrip, Accu-Chek Advantage and the MediSense Optium glucose meters at low, middle and high glucose levels. Results: The StatStrip assay showed excellent linearity and recovery. The coefficient of variations for imprecision were < 5%. This meter correlated well with the comparison method (y = 0.994X + 0.03; r = 0.995, S_y/x = 0.05 mmol/L, bias = - 0.01 mmol/L). Of the three meters tested, only the StatStrip showed interference < 10% for all spiked levels of acetaminophen, ascorbic acid, maltose and hematocrit at three levels of glucose tested. Conclusions: The StatStrip meter showed good performance and is suitable for point-of-care hospital glucose testing.