Background: Capillary glucose (CG) measured with pointof- care glucometers can provide useful approximation of plasma glucose (PG) in selected circumstances but the validity of measurements has been adequately assessed only for a few glucometers.
Methods: We assessed the difference between CG measured with a glucometer (Contour Ascensia, Bayer) and PG measured with a standard laboratory method in participants to a population-based cardiovascular survey in theSeychelles (sample size 1227).
Results: CG correlated well with PG (r = 0.94; p < 0.001). Theoverall difference between PG and CG was -0.55 mmol/L for PG < 4.0 mmol/L (n = 19; 95% CI -0.92; -0.18); 0.14 mmol/L for PG 4.0-4.9 (n = 344; 95% CI 0.08-0.20) and increased according to PG up to 1.64 mmol/L for PG > 9.0 mmol/L (n = 68; 95% CI 1.36; 1.91). The prevalence of diabetes in the study sample was 29% lower with CG than with PG (8.6% vs. 12.1%) but this bias could be corrected by analytical re-calibration.