Blood Sugar Testing Strips Sometimes Wrong: May Lead to Insulin Overdose

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Certain blood sugar testing strips could give inaccurate results in diabetes patients taking dialysis and other biologic drugs, warns the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The drugs contain non-glucose sugars that can falsely elevate blood sugar results, which can increase the risk of insulin overdose. Since 1997, the FDA has received 13 reports of deaths related to the use of the blood sugar testing strips and biologic drugs, the Associated Press reported. Six of the deaths have occurred since 2008.

The blood glucose strips covered in the FDA warning include Freestyle strips from Abbott Laboratories and Accu-Check Comfort Curve strips from Roche.

The FDA noted that many of the blood sugar testing strips that can be affected by biologic drugs are used in hospitals and nursing homes, "which should instead use a laboratory essay to measure a patient's glucose if the patient is also receiving an interfering product," the AP reported.