The use of skin lightening creams can result in falsely elevated capillary glucose and ketone concentrations if the patient's fingers are not carefully cleaned before the fingerstick.
The active ingredient in many skin lightening creams is hydroquinone. This can affected bedside glucose meters.
The hazard is that the false reading goes unrecognized and the patient is treated aggressively for diabetic keotacidosis.
Clinical situation:
(1) The patient uses a skin lightening cream (either for dark skin or for an area of hyperpigmentation).
(2) A bedside glucose reading shows an elevated whole blood glucose and beta-hydroxybutyrate concentration.
(3) The finger used to collect the initial specimen was not properly cleaned.
(4) Repeat testing after proper skin preparation shows a significantly lower concentration in analytes.
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