Reliability of Blood Sugar Reagent Strips

Abstract

Two cases of severe hypoglycaemia following the use of insulin after blood sugar reagent strips indicated an erroneously high value, precipitated an investigation into the reliability of all reagent strips currently being used at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. It was found that when compared to Autoanalyzer values, such a method of blood sugar estimation is unacceptable for clinical useage. Reagent Strips taken from recently opened containers gave reasonably accurate results for lower blood sugar values. It is concluded that such inaccurate results are related to the stability of the reagent strips.