[For the careful use of handheld and portable whole blood glucose meters].

Accurate and frequent glucose measurement is an essential requirement for tight glucose control. Many varieties of handheld and portable blood glucose meters, such as self-monitoring-of-blood-glucose (SMBG) and point-of-care testing (POCT) devices, are widely used for a real-time measurement of whole blood glucose outside the laboratory unit. Obviously, SMBG device has been developed for the home-based use of diabetic patients to achieve better management. In the hospital-based setting, some of SMBG devices have been shown to be inaccurate in the glucose measurement due to a number of factors. Fetal errors were also reported. Thus, the use of SMBG device is restricted in the hospital-based settings. Compared with SMBG device, POCT device for the glucose measurement is thought to be superior in its performance. SMBG device, therefore, is now replacing with POCT one in the hospital-based settings. Although medical doctors or nurses frequently treat POCT device, it will be hoped that clinical laboratory stuffs positively support them for the quality of the equipment, the quality of the use, and the quality of the pre analytical conditions. From these viewpoints, we discussed here about the careful use of these handheld and portable whole blood glucose meters.