#1 ·
Can chemotherapy mess with a standard home glucose monitor and give totally bogus readings? From what I’ve managed to dig up and wrap my head around, you drop blood on a strip, which triggers a reaction that creates an electrical current proportional to the glucose level—something about the oxidation of ferricyanide into ferrocyanide, if I remember correctly. Now, if someone is on platinum-based chemo, and we know platinum is a heavy-duty catalyst used in things like car exhaust systems 😁, is it possible that the platinum itself is interfering with that oxidation process? Could the machine be reading the catalytic effect of the drugs instead of the actual sugar levels?
Sorry if I'm just rambling here; chemistry definitely isn't my forte 🙂
Here’s the situation: a family member currently undergoing chemo is showing blood sugar readings over 27 mmol/L. That's actually the limit of the device, so it just displays "HI." This is happening first thing in the morning, yet they aren't showing any physical symptoms of high blood sugar at all. Their last "real" lab result before starting the second round of chemo was a perfectly normal 4...
Sorry if I'm just rambling here; chemistry definitely isn't my forte 🙂
Here’s the situation: a family member currently undergoing chemo is showing blood sugar readings over 27 mmol/L. That's actually the limit of the device, so it just displays "HI." This is happening first thing in the morning, yet they aren't showing any physical symptoms of high blood sugar at all. Their last "real" lab result before starting the second round of chemo was a perfectly normal 4...