# Getting glucose from an IV needle



## sneauxpod (Dec 4, 2012)

So the other night my partner starts an IV and i asked him to get a BGL before he attached the saline, so in other words when he retracts the needle, just get a drop of blood from the line before he connects the saline. So im getting history and such, he gives me the needle and says here get your sugar out of this, and goes up front and starts headed towards the hospital. We have the retractable ones that clip at the end instead of the auto-retracts which I was used to at my last employer. is there some special thing im missing on how to get the BGL off that needle or is my partner just lazy?


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## piton23 (Dec 4, 2012)

If it is this type, take a pen and push the little white plug at the back of the needle, this will push a drop of blood out of the needle end.


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## mrg86 (Dec 4, 2012)

On one end of the plastic piece that the needle retracts into, there is a pen sized hole with a small, white cylinder looking thing inside. Put your test strip at the other end and press the cylinder down with a pen. There should be a small drop of blood that comes out. Hope that helps.


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## sneauxpod (Dec 4, 2012)

Its this kind lol


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## Medic Tim (Dec 4, 2012)

sneauxpod said:


> Its this kind lol



Doesn't the back pull or twist off giving you access to the blood in the flash chamber. They look similar to the ones I used at my former job.


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## sneauxpod (Dec 4, 2012)

Medic Tim said:


> Doesn't the back pull or twist off giving you access to the blood in the flash chamber. They look similar to the ones I used at my former job.



I actually tried that and the strip wont fit into the chamber lol.


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## NYMedic828 (Dec 4, 2012)

sneauxpod said:


> I actually tried that and the strip wont fit into the chamber lol.



That's because you have to blow into the needle to get it to come out...

Duh.


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## sneauxpod (Dec 4, 2012)

NYMedic828 said:


> That's because you have to blow into the needle to get it to come out...
> 
> Duh.




Derp. why didnt i think of that.


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## Ace 227 (Dec 4, 2012)

NYMedic828 said:


> That's because you have to blow into the needle to get it to come out...
> 
> Duh.



lololol


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## Sublime (Dec 4, 2012)

sneauxpod said:


> Its this kind lol



Never seen / used those. I would just ask your partner.


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## rwik123 (Dec 4, 2012)

Just a note. Not all glucometers are calibrated for venous blood


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## NYMedic828 (Dec 4, 2012)

sneauxpod said:


> Its this kind lol



As a more serious answer,

Remove the flash cap, it just twists or pulls off.

Tap it on the bottom on a table or flat surface to get the blood close enough to get sucked up by the test strip.


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## medicasaurus (Dec 6, 2012)

Using Venous blood in a Glucometer tends to overestimate of the Blood Glucose.

ww w.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15625997

remove space between www as I am to new to post links apparently but its a related study.


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## Christopher (Dec 6, 2012)

medicasaurus said:


> Using Venous blood in a Glucometer tends to overestimate of the Blood Glucose.
> 
> www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15625997
> 
> remove space between www as I am to new to post links apparently but its a related study.



That study is a bit suspect as venous whole blood measurement tends to be _lower_ than capillary whole blood measurement:


> At time zero, the venous and capillary whole blood glucose results were equivalent. The post-loaded glucose levels in capillary blood were significantly higher than the glucose levels in venous blood. (PubMed)


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## medicasaurus (Dec 6, 2012)

Well time to do more reading for me.

Point remains however as to using venous blood on a cap BG meter.


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## usalsfyre (Dec 7, 2012)

On a 0-10 scale of what's important in the realm of patient assessment, where the blood came from for the glucometer ranks at about a negative two. If you get a reading that doesn't agree with what you're seeing, retake it with cap blood. You should be retaking readings that don't agree with the rest of the assessment anyway to make sure the sample was large enough and wasn't contaminated.

Just my two cents...take it for what it's worth.


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## Handsome Robb (Dec 7, 2012)

usalsfyre said:


> On a 0-10 scale of what's important in the realm of patient assessment, where the blood came from for the glucometer ranks at about a negative two. If you get a reading that doesn't agree with what you're seeing, retake it with cap blood. You should be retaking readings that don't agree with the rest of the assessment anyway to make sure the sample was large enough and wasn't contaminated.
> 
> Just my two cents...take it for what it's worth.



Agreed. My first BGL on my burn guy yesterday was 36 mg/dl from the catheter yet he was a&ox4 with no Hx of DM...finger stick came back in the 110s...

If something doesn't make sense you need to troubleshoot.


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## Clare (Dec 7, 2012)

NVRob said:


> Agreed. My first BGL on my burn guy yesterday was 36 mg/dl from the catheter yet he was a&ox4 with no Hx of DM...finger stick came back in the 110s...
> 
> If something doesn't make sense you need to troubleshoot.



What was your rationale for taking a BGL on a patient who had no diabetic history or (presumably) presentation with some sort of problem where dysglycaemia would be possible cause?


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## DesertMedic66 (Dec 7, 2012)

Clare said:


> What was your rationale for taking a BGL on a patient who had no diabetic history or (presumably) presentation with some sort of problem where dysglycaemia would be possible cause?



Since he started the IV he had a blood sample. It seems common practice around here to get a test from that. 

Any patient that gets an IV gets a BGL test.


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## Clare (Dec 7, 2012)

firefite said:


> Since he started the IV he had a blood sample. It seems common practice around here to get a test from that.
> 
> Any patient that gets an IV gets a BGL test.



Interesting, and quite different.


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## Handsome Robb (Dec 7, 2012)

firefite said:


> Since he started the IV he had a blood sample. It seems common practice around here to get a test from that.
> 
> Any patient that gets an IV gets a BGL test.



Bingo. 

Then I got stuck redoing it because it gave me a whacked number.

Its dumb but per protocol a "complete set of vitals" which every patient is to have recorded includes a BGL. Needless to say that protocol gets ignored quite often but if I have the sample from an IV there's no real reason not to do it unless I have bigger fish to fry and not enough hands.


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