Equivalence of Fasting and Non-Fasting Blood Glucose Readings at the Palm and Fingertip Sites

With the recent rise of diabetes, many patients suffer from pain and infections using commercial glucose meters, necessitating the identification of another test site. This work addresses the gap in a palm-related research by providing a reliable alternative test site with statistically significant deviations from the fingertip before and after breakfast. This study took place at Al-Ahliyya Amman University in Jordan. Blood samples were drawn from 50 volunteers from the "fingertip’’ and "palm" sites, then glucose concentrations were statistically analyzed using one-way ANOVA with Tukey's post-test. A regression plot confirmed significance at p-value 0.05. The numerical pain rating scale measured pain severity. To assess the agreement around two clinical assessment sites, the Bland Altman method and Clarke Error Grid were used. Results showed no statistically significant difference between the fingertip and palm sites. During fasting, all measurements were around 2.67 ±1.96 SD. Post-meal fingertip-palm measurements were grouped around 2.35 ±1.96 SD. Using the error grid method, 100% of the fingertip-palm site for glucose levels at fasting times fell in Zone A. The palm felt less pain than the fingertip (P < 0.005). The results showed the palm site as a valid substitute for glucose measurements.