The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is notifying health care providers and
patients of a problem with blood glucose meters made by Abbott Diabetes Care,
Alameda, Calif. The meters can unintentionally be switched from one unit of
measurement to another, resulting in an inaccurate blood glucose interpretation by
the user. Users in the United States should make sure that their meter reading is
displayed as mg/dL because an inaccurate reading can lead to taking the wrong
dose of insulin or dietary changes, resulting in higher levels of sugar in the blood or
hyperglycemia. Hyperglycemia can be a serious and even life-threatening condition
and several cases of hyperglycemia have been reported to FDA. For information
on how to change the meter reading back to mg/dl, users should refer to their
Owner’s Manual or contact Abbott Diabetes Care at 1-800-553-4105 (open 24 hrs.
per day) or AbbottDiabetesCare.com. Consumers who think they may have been
using the wrong read-out on their meters for a long period of time and are now
worried about their health should contact their doctors. Physicians and
consumers who have experienced a problem with any of the affected glucose
meters should report to FDA’s MedWatch program at
http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/ or 1-800-FDA-1088 (1-800-332-1088), and to
Abbott Diabetes Care.
