Loading...
The accuracy of portable cholesterol screening analyzers is disappointingly low. Investigators compared the results of finger-stick measurements and those done by standard venipuncture at a reference laboratory. The analyses, performed on 417 samples obtained through four different screening organizations, showed that only one program's screening methods yielded results that were all within the "acceptable" range of the gold-standard measurement (plus or minus 8.9 percent). At the other sites, accuracy rates ranged from 67 percent to 89 percent.
Inaccurate measurements were most likely to be underestimates of the true value, leading to false-negative results in the effort to screen for high-risk patients. Sources of error identified by the U…