You are here

  • Home
  • Archive
  • Volume 26, Issue 10
  • Pilot study of random finger prick glucose testing as a screening tool for type 2 diabetes mellitus in the emergency department

Article Text

Article menu

Download PDFPDF

Short report
Pilot study of random finger prick glucose testing as a screening tool for type 2 diabetes mellitus in the emergency department
Free
  1. N Hewat1,
  2. D McD Taylor1,
  3. E MacDonald2
  1. 1
    Emergency Department, Austin Hospital, Victoria, Australia
  2. 2
    Worthing Hospital, Sussex, UK
  1. Correspondence to A/Prof D McD Taylor, Emergency Department, Austin Hospital, Studley Road, Heidelberg, Victoria 3084, Australia; david.taylor{at}austin.org.au

Abstract

Background: A study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of undiagnosed hyperglycaemia among patients in the emergency department (ED) and to evaluate the usefulness of random fingerprick plasma glucose (RFPG) screening in the ED with GP follow-up.

Methods: A cross-sectional pilot study of 101 non-diabetic patients in the ED aged ⩾45 years was performed.

Results: 31 (30.7%) had never had diabetic screening. 67 (66.3%) had plasma glucose levels ⩾5.5 mmol/l and were advised to consult their GP; 38 (56.7%) did so and 23 (60.5%) of these had follow-up testing. Nine patients (8.9%) were ultimately diagnosed with impaired glucose metabolism.

Conclusion: There is considerable potential for diabetic screening in the ED setting.

https://doi.org/10.1136/emj.2008.067041

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Funding None.

    • Competing interests None.

    • Ethics approval The study was authorised by the institution’s ethics committee.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    Linked Articles

    • Primary survey
      Primary survey
      Kevin Mackway-Jones
      Emergency Medicine Journal 2009; 26 687-687 Published Online First: 22 Sep 2009. doi: 10.1136/emj.2009.082875