Are Blood Glucose Reagent Strips Reliable in Renal Failure?

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Abstract
In vitro studies have suggested that a low packed cell volume may cause reagent strips to overestimate blood glucose concentration. The reliability of such strips has therefore been investigated in diabetic patients with end‐stage renal failure, all of whom had low haematocrits (24 ± 4 (± SD)%). Three brands of strips were evaluated and their results were compared with laboratory whole blood glucose concentrations determined on the same samples. All over‐read compared with the laboratory (BM Glycemie 1–44 strips 118 ± 1%, Glucostix 132 ± 2%, ExacTech strips 163 ± 4%) and the percentage over‐read was negatively correlated with the haematocrit for each strip (all p < 0.001).