• 03
  • January
    2011

Abbott Laboratories announced a recall of more than 350 million glucose test strips late last month. The test strips are chemically treated strips of paper used by diabetics to test their blood sugar. The supposedly defective products are being recalled because they may not absorb blood fast enough and consequently may give inaccurate, "false low" readings.

According to Abbott, the recalled strips were manufactured in Britain sometime between January and May of last year. It is not clear what caused the defect, but investigators are said to be looking into storage conditions. It is believed that exposure to unnecessarily warm weather may have damaged the strips.

While the defect in these glucose strips may lead to inaccurate results, experts are saying they are least inaccurate in a safer way. According to one researcher, a "false low" reading is preferable to a "false high" because a high blood sugar indication could lead someone to overdose on insulin. Of course, the current situation can also be dangerous in that it may fail to alert someone to treat his or her high blood sugar level.

The recalled glucose strips are included among those used with several different glucose monitoring systems, including the Abbot Precision Extra, the Precision Xceed Pro, the MediSense Optium, the Optium EZ, and the ReliOn Ultima. According to Abbott, the monitors themselves are not covered by the recall, only the test strips belonging to specific product lots.

If you think you have been harmed by a drug or medical device, you should contact your physician to determine if you should still be using the drug or product. If you do have a lingering injury, it is important to take action to protect any claim you might have. The failure to make a claim within a certain period of time may cause you to forfeit your right to recover compensation.

Source: Los Angeles Times, Glucose test strips recalled for "false lows," Andrew Zajec 12/23/10