Hi,
Been Diabetic for 20+ years now and have used a blood meter for a large percentage of those years. My previous meter was a life scan one touch ultra smart which I loved. However my diabetes centre suggested I use a new one called Bayer Contour Link as it will interact with my insulin pump.
The dilemma is that I had reason to doubt the accuracy of my contour link meter and tested my blood of both machines and got a huge variation in the results. The contour link said my sugar was 31.8 while my ultra smart machine said I was 21.7.
I was told by Bayer that the reason for this is my contour link uses a plasma based testing procedure which is apparently more accurate and the test they would run in a hospital lab. while my ultra smart use and whole of blood procedure. They said to allow for a 20% variation between the two types of result.
Both machines are testing accurately when used with their respective control solutions, which adds to the confusion as the variation is bigger than 20% but no apparent defect in either machine.
I am now in a state of confusion over which machine to believe as it makes a big difference to amount of insulin to take.
The out of hours doctor has recommended that I use the lower reading to avoid over medicating but still avoiding ketonacidosis. Unfortunately my diabetes centre is shut and their out of hours service is NHS direct, who put me onto the out of hours doctor.
I was just wondering if anyone has come across this scenario before as I am now having a crisis of confidence over this?
Been Diabetic for 20+ years now and have used a blood meter for a large percentage of those years. My previous meter was a life scan one touch ultra smart which I loved. However my diabetes centre suggested I use a new one called Bayer Contour Link as it will interact with my insulin pump.
The dilemma is that I had reason to doubt the accuracy of my contour link meter and tested my blood of both machines and got a huge variation in the results. The contour link said my sugar was 31.8 while my ultra smart machine said I was 21.7.
I was told by Bayer that the reason for this is my contour link uses a plasma based testing procedure which is apparently more accurate and the test they would run in a hospital lab. while my ultra smart use and whole of blood procedure. They said to allow for a 20% variation between the two types of result.
Both machines are testing accurately when used with their respective control solutions, which adds to the confusion as the variation is bigger than 20% but no apparent defect in either machine.
I am now in a state of confusion over which machine to believe as it makes a big difference to amount of insulin to take.
The out of hours doctor has recommended that I use the lower reading to avoid over medicating but still avoiding ketonacidosis. Unfortunately my diabetes centre is shut and their out of hours service is NHS direct, who put me onto the out of hours doctor.
I was just wondering if anyone has come across this scenario before as I am now having a crisis of confidence over this?
