Glucometer Screening Of Gestational Diabetes

OBJECTIVE(S) : To evaluate the usefulness of glucometer screening during pregnancy and to determine a suitable cut off value for glucometer screening.METHOD(S) : Two hundred women between 24 and 28 weeks of gestation attending our antenatal clinic were screened for blood sugar level by laboratory and glucometer methods 1 hour after 50g glucose load.RESULTS : Forty-three (21.5%) had abnormal screening on laboratory testing. On glucometer screening only 22 (51.1%) of these women were detected to be abnormal taking plasma sugar value of 140 mg/dL as cut off value for positivity by both the methods.CONCLUSION(S) : Laboratory testing of venous plasma glucose is superior to capillary glucometer screening. Optimal screening cut off value on glucometer screening on drawing a receiver operater characteristic (ROC) curve is also140 mg/dL with sensitivity of 66.6% and specificity of 79.3%.