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PHOENIX -- Measuring capillary blood via finger stick assay was as accurate as venous blood sample assays in predicting 5-year likelihood of diabetes, researchers reported here.
Venous blood samples compared with those taken via capillary finger blood through the PreDx test showed no significant difference in glucose area under the curve (AUC), positive predictive value, or sensitivity (P≥0.05), according to Theodore Tarasow, PhD, of Tethys Bioscience in Emeryville, Calif., and colleagues.
Action Points
- This study was published as an abstract and presented at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
- Measuring capillary blood via finger stick assay was as accurate as venous blood sample assays in predicting 5-year likelihood of diabetes.
- Note that the assay uses an algorithm that measures seven biomarkers (blood glucose, glycated hemoglobin, insulin, adiponectin, CRP, IL-2Rα, and ferritin), which are weighted by patient age and gender to ascertain diabetes risk.
Finger stick assay was also significantly better at predicting diabetes than fasting glucose, Tarasow said during an oral presentation at the meeting of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE).
He noted that a major issue with prediabetes screening is that current tests have high sensitivity, but do not always have high specificity.
The PreDx test uses an algorithm that measures seven biomarkers, which are weighted by patient age and gender to ascertain diabetes risk. The measures include blood glucose, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), insulin, adiponectin, CRP, IL-2Rα, and ferritin.
The authors sought to accurately measure prediabetes risk using the PreDx test. They compared finger stick blood with venous blood in 80 matched samples.
Finger stick tests used four drops of blood on an AdvanceDx100 sample strip, which separates serum from blood, Tarasow noted.
Based on AUC measures, there was no significant difference in prediction made via finger stick blood versus venous samples (AUC 0.773, P=0.199), the researchers reported.
Compared with venous blood glucose, the finger stick method was significantly more accurate at predicting prediabetes (P<0.001), they stated.
Tarasow said the test can be used by healthcare professionals without on-site phlebotomy capabilities.
Alan Garber, MD, PhD, of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and AACE session moderator noted that the finger stick test may be an effective alternative, as costs were not significantly higher than current standard testing.
A 2011 study in the Journal of Medical Economics that a test combining impaired glucose fasting (IFG) plus PreDx resulted in an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of $17,100/quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained at 5 years and would become cost-saving in a decade.
In comparison, IFG alone led to an ICER of $235,500/QALY gained at 5 years and $94,600/QALY gained at 10 years.
Disclosures
Tarasow is an employee of Tethys Bioscience, which made the prediabetes test used in this study.
Primary Source
American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists
Source Reference: Tarasow T, et al "Predx finger stick: diabetes risk stratification of prediabetic patients from conveniently collected capillary blood" AACE 2013; Abstract 1103.