Abstract

Background: In the field epidemiological survey of gestational diabetes, the laboratory measurement of venous plasma glucose and the measurement of capillary blood glucose by blood glucose meters have limitations. Objectives: To evaluate the value and appropriateness of capillary and venous blood glucose measured by glucose meter in the diagnosis and epidemiological survey of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Subjects and methods: 230 women at 24 – 32 weeks of gestation were underwent a 75g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) with venous plasma glucose (VPG) measured in the laboratory, and venous blood glucose (VBG) and capillary blood glucose (CBG) measured with Contour TS and One touch VerioPro glucometers. The prevalence of GDM, sensitivity and specificity of the blood glucose measured by the above mentioned methods in the disease diagnosis were compared. Results: There were negative biases of VBG – VPG in all three time points in OGTT for both glucose meters. The biases of CBG – VPG were positive at 1 and 2 hours for One touch meter, but the rest were negative. The standard deviations (dispersion) of the biases of VBG – VPG were significantly lower than those of CBG – VPG at 1 and 2 hours. The venous glucose has higher agreement with laboratory VPG in respect to GDM diagnostic thresholds compared to the capillary one at the same time points in the OGTT. The prevalence of GDM according to the laboratory VPG, Contour meter venous glucose, One touch meter venous glucose, Contour meter capillary glucose and One touch meter capillary glucose was 24.8%, 17.4%, 22.2%, 23.5% and 30.9%, respectively; the sensitivity in diagnosing GDM was 59.6%, 70.2%, 63.2% and 78.9%, respectively, and the specificity was 96.5%, 93.6%, 89.6% and 85.0%, respectively. Conclusions: Capillary and venous blood glucose measured by the glucose meters was not reliable to diagnose GDM in individual pregnant women, but can be used to determine prevalence of GDM in epidemiological survey, and venous blood glucose may be advantageous than the capillary one. In practice, it is necessary to conduct a study comparing the prevalence of GDM by different glucometers with both venous and capillary glucose in order to select the most