FDA warns of faults in glucose-test strips

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning diabetes patients that certain blood-sugar tests can give inaccurate results in patients taking other medications.

Public-health regulators told consumers Friday not to use certain glucose-testing strips from Roche, Abbott Laboratories and other companies in combination with dialysis and other biologic drugs. According to the FDA, those formulations contain nonglucose sugars, which can falsely elevate blood-sugar results and increase the risk of insulin overdose.

People with the disease often have to inject insulin, which helps break down carbohydrates, because their bodies have become resistant to the protein.

Dialysis and so-called immunoglobulins are most often taken by patients with serious medical ailments, including kidney failure and rheumatoid arthritis. The biologic drugs' labeling already warns that they can interfere with glucose-monitoring tests, but the FDA says the products continue to be used.

Since 1997 the FDA received 13 reports of death related to the use of glucose-testing strips and biologic-drug formulations.

Brands affected by the announcement include Roche's Accu-Chek Comfort Curve test strips and Abbott's Freestyle test strips.