Performance and storage of reagent strips for measuring blood glucose.

Use of reagent strips to monitor blood glucose concentrations in diabetic patients, with or without a glucose meter, is gaining in popularity. Favourable performance of the recently introduced Boehringer BM Test Glycemie 20-800 strips has been reported.'-4 We compared Boehringer strips and Dextrostix (Ames) with laboratory measurement of blood glucose. Occasional discrepancies between results determined by test strips and those determined by subsequent laboratory analysis also led us to examine stability of these reagent strips after storage under various conditions.