New, small, fast acting blood glucose meters--an analytical laboratory evaluation.

Background: Patients and medical personnel are eager to use blood glucose meters that are easy to handle and fast acting. We questioned whether accuracy and precision of these new, small and light weight devices would meet analytical laboratory standards and tested four meters with the above mentioned conditions.

Methods: Approximately 300 capillary blood samples were collected and tested using two devices of each brand and two different types of glucose test strips.