Clinical Pearls

Are all types of glucose measurement equal? Does it matter if you use fingerstick, arterial, or catheter blood? Lacara and colleagues found that

• glucose measures are equal

• the source of blood does not matter unless your patient has

  • low hematocrit

  • low serum carbon dioxide

Care should be taken with patients who have abnormal hematocrit or carbon dioxide levels. Clinicians can verify the accuracy of point-of-care (POC) glucose testing by comparing the POC value with the laboratory value of a sample obtained at the same time.

See Article, pp 336–347

Did you know that your patient’s anxiety level may negatively affect his or her outcome after myocardial infarction, especially in-hospital complications? As Moser notes:

• Women experience more anxiety than men and the difference is present in both Western and Eastern cultures.

• Higher anxiety levels might help to explain poorer outcomes...