El control de la glucemia en la palma de la mano causa menos dolor con igual precisión

Self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) has been playing an important role in diabetes management. However, there are still some barriers that make patients retreat from adopting SMBG. Among them, fear of pain caused by measurement is the greatest. Although fingertip capillary blood has been long used for SMBG, blood glucose (BG) testing at alternative sites has been under search by request of patients looking for less painful techniques. As there has been a debate as to the equivalence of BG levels measured at various sites, some studies, including ours, suggest that BG measurement in the forearm shows an imprecise value when BG changes rapidly. Contrary, it has been showed that BG measurement in the palm is equivalent to the BG value in the fingertip. As for pain, most patients answered that measurement in the palm was less painful. These facts imply that SMBG in the palm has some advantages to other sites. The defects of palm measurement are difficult handling of device and scar left in the palm, though difficult handling may be resolved by improving the measuring device. Less unpleasant BG measurement may increase the chance for the patient with diabetes to face up to their disease.