Strength and Limitation
A main strength of our study is the relatively large sample size with
230 women from different ethnic backgrounds. Both fasting and at 2-hour
time-points of OGTT were available for all patient and performed by
competent staff which minimises operator errors. It is the first study
to use NICE 2015 diagnostic thresholds for POC and Lab-VPG comparison.
To our knowledge this is the only study using the POC-StatStrip® meter
on an antenatal cohort, with its unique haematocrit measurement, which
is particularly important due to the effect of pregnancy on haematocrit.
We acknowledge that the proposed protocol of checking POC-
StatStrip® first with the result
determining the need for venous sampling and laboratory testing can
increase complexity so staff training and support prior to implementing
this protocol would be essential.