Capillary blood glucose monitor: evaluation in a newborn nursery. Clin Ped

The performance of a rapid capillary blood glucose monitor, the Glucoscan 2000, was evalu-ated in a neonatal patient population by comparison with a reference method on 283 paired patient samples. The median glucose was 56 mg/dL (3.1 mmol/L). The slope of the regression line was.93 with a correlation coefficient r of.82. The average error in Glucoscan values at low, intermediate and high glucose ranges was 43%, 20 % and 12 % respectively. Precision analysis by replicate determinations also showed an increased coefficient of variation, 7.4%, at low glucose values. The Glucoscan 2000 lacks sufficient accuracy and precision at low glucose values to serve as the exclusive analytic test for the diagnosis of neonatal hypoglycemia. NEONATAL HYPOGLYCEMIA is a common metabolic abnormality that may induce irreversible brain damage if untreated. 1,2 Desirable features of a laboratory test for glucose determination in neonates include small sample size, ease of acquisition, accu-racy and precision, minimal discomfort, and rapi